Film Catalogue
Cinedans Leader '24
Andreas Hannes, 2024, min
downriver Out of Competition
Andrea Boll, 2020, CH, min
A group of people emerges from the water. They try to work against the current of the river and the crowd of people in the city, but surrender to the flow and are washed ashore. Going with the flow or against it, resistance and devotion manifest as a basic instinct. A strategy of survival.
Circe Out of Competition
Bowie Verschuuren, 2018, NL, min
Retelling of the classic myth of Circe and Odysseus. Circe overcomes the deception of an unanswered love and lets him go.
Endurance New Dutch
Imre van Opstal, 2023, IL, 11 min
Whether it's running a marathon, climbing a mountain, or simply making it through a difficult day, endurance is what enables people to persist and succeed. A film about the power of perseverance and resilience and a testament to the idea that with hard work, determination, and the inherent drive to keep going despite adversity, anything is possible.
Parque online potential
Iván Asnicar & Ailén Cafiso, 2022, AR, 6 min
A park. Two bodies dance looking for the exit. Through the tour they find fantastic and real situations. The movement will carry them forward into the next age. A labyrinthine passage from Dance in the Park.
Mimeisthai Out of Competition
Phoebe Robinson, 2023, AU, 16 min
Mimeisthai is an experimental screendance that responds to Walter Benjamin’s concept of the ‘mimetic faculty’, which is, the ability to perceive and/or reproduce similarity. This generic skill is possessed by all living things and finds expression on various levels, from the biological to the behavioral; such as in reproduction or camouflage, to the myriad ways that creatures communicate.
In Mimeisthai movements are shared, copied and repeated between performers both on and off-screen, and then amplified across multiple frames. Through duplication, repetition, and layering multiple exposures, this work explores the mimetic faculty of dance and digital video.
Around its own axis New Dutch
Mirte van Duppen, 2020, NL, 12 min
Around its own axis showcases the infinite, repetitive rhythm of the automated Dutch agricultural landscape. Machines perform a dance, while choreographer Pauline Roelants, in the language of her profession, guides the viewer through the scenes. Thus, the silences and tranquility of the landscapes, interacting with the impulsive actions and mistakes of the machine, become an integral part of the choreography.
Faces of Passing Love Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Hsiang-Yun Huang , 2023, NL, TW, 9 min
Faces of Passing Love is a film that mourns for past lovers through obsolete technology: a repeatedly projected slideshow, where eyes open, mouths whisper, tears linger.
EXT. online potential
Laura Nasmyth, 2023, AT, 25 min
A figure transitions between two realities: An external material one - in which they are subjected to increasing levels of social interaction - picking up ‘human’ traits as they go. And an internal fluid one - in which they are able to seek refuge to be and feel themselves.
EXT. is centred around the experience of someone trying to figure out what it is to be ‘human’. The film is a reference to our experiences as social animals and the often absurd evolution we go through, to adapt to society.
It also references gender exploration - the journey of an initially gender neutral character, that is increasingly nudged to conform to a binary - in order to fit in - and their escape to a fluid space, devoid of expectations and norms.
The film uses movement instead of dialogue as a means of expression and follows the protagonist on their awkward journey through different surroundings, like an avatar in a computer game.
La Ultima Ascensión Competition Shorts, International Short Film Competition, and New Dutch
Kevin Osepa, 2022, NL, 23 min
Rowin, a 22-year-old fisherman from Banda Abou (Curaçao) has little luck catching fish at his fishing spot. He goes there everyday despite the disapproval of his mother. One day, on the coastline where he fishes daily, he encounters a mysterious young man who will change everything.
This film is part of the online program but accessible only in the Netherlands and until the 25th March.
The Lost Years Out of Competition
Marcos Zoe Nacar, 2023, DE, ES, 5 min
On a 5-day hike from the Seriana to the Brembana Valley in Italy, a character is in search of answers but doesn’t pose any questions. A speculative dance documentary reflecting on the relationship between human and mountain, as material entity and as idea.
?!%$&*#@$^*()}!@#|%>? Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Clare Chong, Sonia Kwek, 2022, SG, 7 min
Two bodies emerge, one of flesh and one of metal. Both are cautious of, yet compelled towards each other. This evolves into a game of hide and seek. Can friendship truly form or will we always be stuck in a limbo of a human vs machine narrative? ?!%$&#@$^()}!@#|%>? is a cry to connect, to be seen by each other and come together. Singaporean filmmaker Clare Chong and movement artist Sonia Kwek are working for the first time with the Bolt, a high-speed camera robot.
Dog Cloud New Dutch
Amos Ben-Tal/OFFprojects, 2023, NL, 8 min
Four dancers, one choreographic score, one poem, one camera, one angle, three takes and no edits. Dog Cloud explores the subtle interplay between structure, chance and the human desire for finding patterns and stories.
Dante
Jamie Lee, 2023, BE, 5 min
We are transported into a dream-like state in which we do not run, but dance. The original music composed by Echo Collective takes us on a journey through landscapes where time disappears and we are drawn into nature.
and so I'll go Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Julia Müllner, Anna Sophia Rußmann, Kilian Immervoll, Pipi Fröstl, 2022, AT, 9 min
A building is in constant development, it’s enlivened, used, worn out, decaying. Bodies leave traces in buildings. Buildings leave their mark on us. Decay does not necessarily end in dust that we gently sweep away. In and so I'll go the carpet of an old furniture showroom becomes the grid of various accumulative micro plots and intimate dances.
Falso Vacío online potential
Julio Ramos, 2023, IT, MX, 6 min
Who are these entities of abandonment? They have never seen the light and a simple lightning strike awakens the hope of escaping from confinement.
Noora online potential
Anna Kekkonen, 2023, FI, 8 min
Noora is a dance short film that follows Noora's movement. She is a dancer. Her body's impulses are generated in the moment from contact with different environments. Noora has congenital bone fragility, osteogenesis imperfecta. She uses a wheelchair as a dancing aid. In it, she can move widely, but feels isolated. On the ground, she feels the ground against her skin. In the water she can let go of her wheelchair. Noora's toes sink into the mud bottom, which pulsates with her steps. The water supports her fragile body with its pressure and surrounded by it she dares to move more freely, her body is more elastic, her expressions and range of motion are greater. In water she finds ways to move as independently as other dancers on land.
Dark Field Analysis Out of Competition
Jefta Van Dinther, Max Vitali, 2022, DE, SE, 19 min
We may imagine ourselves unaffected by the changes of contemporaneity, but the organic and the synthetic have fused. In Dark Field Analysis, we take a dive into the disconcerting strangeness of the inner self, of what often remains hidden – anatomically, psychologically and spiritually. The film speaks about the complexity of living in this world, incorporating animal forces, desire, instinct and technology.
A BIRD CALLED MEMORY Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Leonardo Martinelli , 2023, BR, GB, 15 min
A bird called Memory has forgotten how to come back home. Lua, a trans woman, searches for Memory in the streets, where she finds the city to be a hostile place.
A new day has come online potential
Red Nguyen Hai Yen, 2022, VN, 8 min
Ngày Mới’ (A new day has come), is a poetic visual response to the new track “Ngày Mới” of Vietnam-based electronic band Tiny Giant. The film depicts a world in constant motion that opens up when we slumber. Cavernous darkness is a habitat of transit, between worlds and the axis of time. In the heart of this motion, memories, knowledge, sadness and joy will leave their residues without completely disappearing: perhaps they have fallen into another place, another turning of time. The moment of transit in the cave doubles as both childhood and adulthood come to the surface in sync, where we bend closer in proximity to the inner child, the taste of a spoonful of innocence lingering on the tongue. Deity-like characters also appear in the video. They are gods of the filmmaker’s own world turned into images, as any person can have their own interpretation of a god. In this film, God is understood as a provider of support and company, and trust is a form of custody. We trust in the things that can protect and guide us. The eyeless horses, then, appear as mascots and attachment figures that walk with the children towards the world.
Part of the choreography was initially inspired by the ‘Kitsune Wedding’ scene in ‘Dreams’ – a film by Akira Kurosawa, in combination with experimental hip hop moves and the krumping stomps, choreographed and performed by Saigon-based dancer Kim from La Différence Saigon and Hanoi-based dancer Quay Trần from Abnormal Conceptz.
10 Years Junior Company Het Nationale Ballet Out of Competition
Eva Oosterveld, 2024, NL, 15 min
The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet, nurturing and developing exceptional young talent and shaping the future generation of leading dancers, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. A celebratory documentary about a crucial platform for the development of young and ambitious dancers.