Frameform

This week’s episode of Frameform features three extraordinarily experienced artists-Kati Kallio, Maia Sorensen and Helena Jonsdottir- who wear many hats in the screendance field as filmmakers, curators, educators and more. Clare spoke with them about their work in screendance creation, curation and education and how it is informing the establishment of a nascent Nordic Screendance Network. The conversation broaches the necessity of regular in-person meetings for practitioners as well as how the strength of a network can aid in the advocation of a more sustainable screendance field for those working in it.

Kati Kallio is a prolific filmmaker based in Finland who was a co-founder of the Loikka Dance Film Festival, which ran between 2008-2018. Maia Sorensen is a Copenhagen-based artist and facilitator whose integrated artistic and curatorial practice includes work with ScreenMoves/Dansehallerne (DK) and the international dance film competition 60secondsdance. Helena Jonsdottir is an artist based between Brussels and Reykjavik whose artistic practice of films with a movement based core bears the name Physical Cinema, which is also the name of her long running festival. 

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https://www.katikallio.com/

https://maiaelisabethsorensen.com/

Loikka Dance Film Festival Archives

Physical Cinema Festival Reykjavík Iceland

Argos centre of audiovisual arts in Brussels   

10 Moving North dance films created in 2003 https://www.scenarkivet.se/uppsattning/1669/moving-north-ten-short-dance-films/mer/ + https://www.dfi.dk/viden-om-film/filmdatabasen/film/moving-north, 

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 where we release bonus content :) The cost to access is less than a fancy cup of coffee.

Hello! We’re back from our summer recess which means we have more episodes to come for the rest of the 2024 year!

For today’s episode, Hannah sits down with Austin, Texas filmmaker Maggie Bailey, discussing her 2022 dance documentary, Moving Together. This particular doc is something I myself (Hannah), have not seen in the dance documentary mode. What made this movie really stand out from others is that the story blends a soothing balance of cinematic movement that we commonly see in screendance, but then pairing those vignettes with gentle interview voiceover. Overall, Maggie guides viewers on a weaving journey between the relationship of music and dance through the lens of 6 collaborators who approach the art form in their own way.

In this interview, we learn about Maggie’s technical process for making Moving Together and dive into some of the elements that make this movie extra special.

 

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Moving Together logline
Moving Together explores the intimacy of collaboration between musicians and dancers in Flamenco, Modern, and New Orleans Second Line in both performance and class environments. As artists, we collaborate with other disciplines consistently, but what pulls us back to specific people for collaboration? 

This feature length, performative documentary investigates the relationships between Michael Wall, modern dance accompanist and composer, and Jesse Zaritt, dancer and choreographer; Olivia and Isai Chacon, a Flamenco dancer and Spanish guitarist; and New Orleans natives Michelle N. Gibson, cultural ambassador, choreographer, performer, and Thaddeus Ford, sixth generation Trumpet player. 

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Follow and get in touch with Maggie Bailey
www.maggiembailey.com

@maggiembailey 
@movingtogetherfilm

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Got a question? Email us at [email protected] and follow us on social for updates @frameformpod on Instagram

Want even more Frameform? Consider joining us on Patreon where we release bonus content :) The cost to access is less than a fancy cup of coffee.

Unless you have hit the screendance jackpot, it’s highly unlikely that you are a full-time screendance maker. Carving time out to create your own work can be a bit difficult and sometimes it’s intimidating to start. As Frameform goes into the summer break, we are offering creative prompts designed to help you practice creating dance films on a regular basis. These are not recipes for masterpieces, rather ideas to help you break out of familiar patterns and discover new and interesting ideas for future work regardless of budget or technical familiarity.

Happy creating!

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4:01- Prompt 1

5:28- Prompt 2

7:10- Prompt 3

8:26- Prompt 4

9:33- Prompt 5

This episode has been transcribed for your reading pleasure. You can find the pdf here.

FILMS REFERENCED

SONDER

Director and Choreographer: Simona Deaconescu

D.O.P: Tudor Panduru

Sound Design: Sebastian Zsemlye

BIRDS

Director: David Hinton

Choreographer: Yolande Smith

BOOKS MENTIONED

 

Making Video Dance by Katrina McPherson

Cutting Rhythms by Karen Pearlman

The Photographer’s Playbook by Jason Fulford, Gregory Halpern & Mike Slack 

Master Shots by Christopher Kenworthy

Screendance Bingo by Simon Fildes

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Become a Patreon Supporter and enjoy our exclusive resources released last summer and coming up this year. 

Got a question? Send us an email at 

[email protected]

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We love connecting with the people behind the scenes at festivals. In today’s episode, we speak with Nicole Spring of the Los Angeles Dance Film Festival. We talk all about how she started the LA Dance Shorts Film Festival - now known as Los Angeles Dance Film Festival - and how this project has evolved over the years. Nicole cares deeply about serving the community through these events and has proved to be open to adapting to best do that. We’re excited to share more about how LADFF has grown with her leadership and what is coming up next for this festival. We also discuss challenges and decision making from the perspective of curators and producers, and offer some tips for filmmakers.

Learn and Explore More:

@ladancefilmfest on IG, FB, X, Vimeo, YouTube

Most theater-goers are familiar with black boxes. We’re not talking about literal boxes that are black but in a way it’s not totally off the mark. Walking inside a black box theater, it’s pretty bare and minimal – empty space, a place for an audience to sit, and maybe a few studio lights for dramatic lighting. These spaces may not have that grand sparkling feeling when you walk into a 200+ capacity, red curtain adorned proscenium, but it serves very much the same purpose: possibility in creativity.

In this location scout round table discussion we’ll be spotlighting a few films that take place in these spaces. The set may not exhibit a lot of pizazz and visual stimulation, but the concepts present big ideas that add to the narrative. Here we learn that black box theaters are meant to host possibilities, fill in the holes with imagination, and let the performance do the talking.

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FILMS

STILL DANCING

Albacete, Spain

Director & Dancer: Anton Valdbauer @deepdivedance

https://vimeo.com/613317072

Snap Into It.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnjUlViflTc

Director of Photography: Devin Jamieson

Choreographed, Danced and Spoken by: Jillian Meyers

Composed by: Matt Cady

OUTOPIA
Slovenia/UK

https://vimeo.com/624750258

Inspired by director Franc Kranjc 
Director: Helen Rollins 

Writers: Adrian Romero and Helen Rollins 

Producers: Johnny Rollins, Peter Rollins, Adrian Romero, and Lisa Kruse 

Young Actor: Jack Boyle

HONORABLE MENTIONS

 

A Flower - Skyla Schreter 

Three on Four  (excerpt) - Marty Buhler

Standing Between Two Walls - Manizha 

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Become a Patreon Supporter and enjoy our exclusive resources released last summer and coming up this year. 

Got a question? Send us an email at 

[email protected]

!

Frameform is thrilled to collaborate with Cinedans on several episodes to commemorate the 20th edition of the Amsterdam-based festival which took place in late March 2024. Through its adventurous film programming along with its substantial professional development program, Cinedans has established itself as a destination event for anyone interested in dance film and welcomes artists from around the world to its in-person event. 

Cinedans celebrated its bidecennial (yes, we looked that up) with a five day jam packed event filled with film screenings, meetings, and presentations . One of these presentations was a masterclass given by Iranian-Canadian musician and film director Kavah Nabatian, who also served on the jury of the event. The episode contains a short recording from this masterclass.

http://kavehnabatian.com/films/

Kite Zo A trailer

https://vimeo.com/kavehnabatian/kitezoatrailer

Kaveh’s film “Kite Zo A- Leave The Bones” -a docu screendance that takes a powerful and dynamic journey through Haitian history and culture-was presented in association with the three stated themes of Cinedans’ 2024 event, “Resistance, Resilience & Freedom”. “Grief & Reconciling the Past”, and “Rituals & Healing”. These themes coalesced in a dedicated program called “Breaking the Chains” highlighting films with postcolonial themes from different countries and historical perspectives, portraying ancestral rituals, struggles for independence, spirituality and the persistent pervasive effects of slavery.

The program opened with a ceremonial invocation and was followed by a Q&A with Christian Guerematchi (“CRNI TITO- Blaq Tito Addressing the Parliament of Ghosts”) along with Gabri Christa, Honore Van Ommoren and Steven Elbers from the film Kankantri-The Silk Cotton Tree, which premiere in the program. 

https://christianguerematchi.com

CRNI TITO trailer

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Jsz5aOOs8

Kankantri film page

https://www.gabrichrista.com/work/kankantri

Check out our Frameform Patreon page to access resources we have released and have coming up this summer.

Frameform is thrilled to collaborate with Cinedans on several episodes to commemorate the 20th edition of the Amsterdam-based festival which took place in late March 2024. Through its adventurous film programming along with its substantial professional development program, Cinedans has established itself as a destination event for anyone interested in dance film and welcomes artists from around the world to its in-person event. This year’s edition of the festival featured a “Best of” segment where audience’s could view the most popular films from the previous two decades, including three films from Iranian dance artist Tanin Torabi

If you've attended any dance film event in the last few years, you have likely seen the hypnotic film The Dérive which features Tanin moving through a Bazaar in Tehran, the capital city of Iran where dance has been banned since the country's revolution in the late 1970s. Tanin has since created two films set in Tehran, “In Plain Sight” and “Until”, the latter of which was created in the midst of the Woman Life Freedom protests in response to the murder of Mahsa Amini by Iran's morality police.

Clare had the opportunity to speak with Tanin in person at Cinedans 2024, and only a few hours after this conversation took place, “Until” was awarded the Jury Award at Cinedans for Best Dance Short.

Check out our Frameform Patreon page to access resources we have released and have coming up this summer.

https://cinedans.nl/

https://tanintorabi.art/

Audiences can be strongly divided when it comes to musicals, and the same goes for superhero flicks. Are these “theme park movies” the “death of cinema” or are they just a product of the times? In this roundtable with special guest Steven Butler, we cover many facets of movie musicals, superhero franchise films, and how they reflect the circumstances in which they are made and viewed. Also: what is on the horizon of big screen spectacles and what factors are determining our course forward?

Check out our Frameform Patreon page to access resources we have released and have coming up this summer.

Announcement:

Available On Demand @ Dancinema Online March 1st to 31st: STEPS OF FREEDOM: The Story of Irish Dance. 

This doc reveals how Irish dance was shaped over centuries through interactions with many cultures as it evolved from a simple folk dance to become a global phenomenon loved by millions around the world.

 Enjoy Steps of Freedom during a movie night at home with Dancinema Online ( 

www.dancinema.co

 )   and bonus playlist: “Percussive & Folk Dances of the World” shorts

That’s a wrap! We reflect, share some behind the scenes perspectives and celebrate all that is Season 4 of Frameform.

Thank you to the festivals and organizations we partnered with: Dance Camera West, ADF’s Movies by Movers, Standard Vision, Dancinema’s Capitol Dance & Cinema Festival. We’ll be on tour again next season and in conversation with other festival curators, producers and featured dancefilmmakers.

Thank you to everyone we interviewed this season: Gabri Christa, Bridget Murnane, David Roussève,  Samantha Shay, Nina McNeely, Caroline Haydon, Vanessa Sanchez, John Jota Leaños, Mimmo Miccolis, Carola Mamberto, Lolly Ashly, Sean Dorsey, Maggie M. Bailey, Courtney Holbrooks, Henry Isiah Graham, Chloe Ilene, Jake Kruty, Jon Rodriguez and Xavier Townsend.

And a very special thanks to Maddy Leitner for her second season of production support!

Check out our Frameform Patreon page for 6 awesome resources we released over the past few months ranging from Technical Tips for Video Editing by Hannah, a visual guide to all things Frameform by Jen Ray, Zines by Clare, and more.

Dancinema’s 2023 program is LIVE at Dancinema Online! Become a site member (it’s free!) to browse festival archives and new selections for this season.

Coming soon: Dancinema’s 10 year Anthology. This is a PDF guide to all of the dancefilms we have screened to date, plus collaborations and projects. Get yours by becoming a Dancinema site member or a Frameform Patreon Subscriber!