2026 San Francisco Dance Film Festival

In Other Words

Plot becomes physical in these five imaginative stories, where movement drives the narrative forward.

Friday, November 6 at 6:00PM

Brava Theater

Runtime: 53 minutes

General Admission $20 / Arts Patron $40

In Other Words brings together five story-driven films where feeling takes physical form. Follow a boy whose racing mind becomes an ensemble of drifting thoughts, a man whose fear takes the shape of a Kafkaesque transformation, and a weary coat maker confronted by the ghosts of a family he left behind. The program also finds warmth and levity: a wine commercial spirals into gorgeous chaos in the vineyards of Northern Italy, and children training at a ballet school near the Arctic Circle move through the discipline and wonder of growing up.

In Other Words features an impressive roster of talent, including Emmy-nominated choreographer Chris Scott (Wicked, In the Heights), Czech National Ballet’s Jakub Rasek, and Romina Contreras of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. With expressive cinematography and carefully crafted choreography, this collection of short films proves that some of the most powerful stories are carried by the body.

Viewing note: flashing lights (Boys a Bug, ADHD)

Program Films:

A performer in a red blue and yellow jester-like costume with a white ruffled collar stands among a row of grapevines, looking upwards between the clusters of grapes hanging above their head.

In the vineyards of Northern Italy, at harvest time, cultures clash, and a wine commercial shoot goes astray, until dance, music, comedy — and the magic of a harlequin — intervene.

Alla Kovgan

Oleg Stepanov

(Italy, 2025) 20:00 minutes

Grape Maestro

A group of young ballet dancers in matching white leotards and skirts practice together in a bright studio, raising their arms above their heads in synchronized positions. Behind them, a brown ballet barre is mounted to a white wall, and sunlight streams in through a window off-camera illuminating one of the young dancers.

At a ballet school near the Arctic Circle, children spend their entire childhood training and living together, a portrait of the daily journey toward maturity and beauty.

Gosha Kazakov-Pokrovsky

Zhanna Popova, Oksana Abramova

(2025) 03:15 minutes

Kere Ayan

In in a dimly lit warehouse, a dancer with a worried look gently embraces a bearded man in a black coat from behind. Her cheek rests near the older man's shoulder, as he looks downward with a somber expression.

A weary coat maker returns to an abandoned warehouse, where ghostly garments awaken in a surreal dance, forcing him to relive the family and self he left behind.

Sara Silkin

(United States, 2026) 10:29 minutes