Dance on Camera Festival 2018

American Tap

Opening Night · World Premiere · Q&A with director Mark Wilkinson and cast

This in-depth documentary on the history of tap is an absorbing narrative about a quintessentially American dance.

If the Dancer Dances

Closing Night · World Premiere · Q&A with Lise Friedman, director Maia Wechsler, and cast

Former Cunningham dancer Lise Friedman and director Maia Wechsler follow a group of New York City’s top modern dancers as they reconstruct RainForest, an iconic work by the legendary Merce Cunningham.

Spike Jonze Is a Dancer

World Premiere

This special program features Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Jonze as choreographer, filmmaker, and dance storyteller, presenting several of his greatest hits on a big screen, as well as a dance-themed montage created specially for this event.

Ballet Now

Special Screening · Q&A with Tiler Peck and director Steven Cantor

Featuring New York City Ballet’s Prima Ballerina Tiler Peck and a diverse cast of world-class dancers from around the globe, Ballet Now provides a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the world of ballet and what it takes to create a one-of-a-kind dance extravaganza.

A Man of Dance (Un homme de danse)

New York Premiere · Q&A with director Marie Brodeur

This film documents the unusual life of Vincent Warren, who danced under the baton of Igor Stravinsky; collaborated on a film with Norman McLaren; and had love poems dedicated to him by Frank O’Hara.

Bournonville Legacy: Three Short Films

Q&A with director Signe Roderik

Three films illuminate the life and legacy of visionary ballet master August Bournonville (1805-1879)

Fire and Ashes, Making the Ballet RAkU

New York Premiere · Q&A with director Shirley Sun

Yuri Possokhov’s choreography for prima ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan mingles Japanese Noh theater and elements of Butoh with classical and contemporary ballet styles to create a powerful dance drama.

Gravity Hero

World Premiere · Q&A with director Trey McIntyre

In 2014, after ten years of building his dance company in Boise, Idaho, to great acclaim, Trey McIntyre shut it down. Its sudden and mysterious end is the backdrop of McIntyre’s introspective documentary.

Her Magnum Opus

New York Premiere · Q&A with director Marta Renzi and cast members

Choreographer Marta Renzi, a prolific director of shorts, makes an auspicious feature debut using a cast culled from the worlds of film, Broadway, and dance, creating a dreamlike story of friendship told almost entirely through movement.

Lucinda Childs, Great Fugue by Beethoven

World Premiere · Q&A with Lucinda Childs and director Marie-Hélène Rebois

Lucinda Childs, known for her cool minimalist approach, choreographed Beethoven’s Great Fugue for the Lyon Opera Ballet in 2016. Marie-Hélène Rebois was there to document the rehearsals and performance.

Maurice Béjart, The Soul of Dance

U.S. Premiere

This is a detailed portrait of famous French-born dancer-choreographer Maurice Béjart (1927-2007), who brought a distinctive theatrical flair to his ballet and opera productions, and who was best known for his sensual tabletop ballet set to Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero.” Preceded by The Mime Marcel Marceau.

NY Export: Opus Jazz

Q&A with dancers Georgina Pazcoguin (featured in the film) and dancer-actress Sondra Lee

In 1958, Jerome Robbins’s “ballet in sneakers” became a hit and toured the world. In 2010, New York City Ballet dancers Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi reimagined the Robbins choreography for the screen, with a new generation of City Ballet dancers.

Perfectly Normal for Me

Q&A with director Catherine Tambini

In this intimate documentary, a group of kids from ages 5 to 15 reveal what it’s like to live with a variety of physical and developmental challenges, joining a team of dancers, helpers, and teen volunteers with an ambitious goal: a spring recital.

DFA Global—Three Short Films

DFA Global provides a platform with screen dance partners and producers to screen films from all over the world. Inaugural selections hail from Canada, China, and Brazil.

Shorts Program: Narrative

The lives of dancers and other artists are explored in thirteen shorts that tell stories through movement.

Shorts Program: Experimental

Ten shorts focus on body movement and push the boundaries of cinematic form.

Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters

Q&A with Rosalynde LeBlanc and Tom Hurwitz

Can You Bring It traces the remarkable history and legacy of one of the most important works of art to come out of the AIDS era: Bill T. Jones’s tour de force ballet D-Man in the Waters.

#mydancefilm

Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®

Responding to an opportunity for filmmakers to get their work seen—and screened—hundreds of films were posted using the hashtags #mydancefilm. A few of the exceptional entries will screen at this event.

Meet the Artist: Karen Pearlman

Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®

Meet the director of Woman with an Editing Bench, a biopic about Russian film editor Elizaveta Svilova, unsung creative collaborator on Dziga Vertov’s classic Man with a Movie Camera (1929).

Capturing Motion: Screening and Jury Discussion

High school students are invited by Dance Films Association to submit films between one and five minutes. Experience the top five juried films and a conversation with the students.

DFA Global Exchange

Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®

This informal roundtable discussion will focus on film production as practiced by a wide variety of perspectives across arts organizations, film festivals, and independent producers.

Francisco Graciano: Angels in Human Form

Free and open to the Public!

This exhibit functions as a fragmented timeline spanning 13 years of the photographer’s life as a dancer in the Paul Taylor Dance Company.