Program 6: Shorts I – NY Filmmakers

You Left Me Alone
Manhattan Premiere
Lauren Fondren, 2022, USA, 15m
When a crisis forces Erica home to confront her estranged sibling, Marina, she fights to revive their childhood connection, only to find some wounds are too deep to heal.

The Fell Of Dark
New York City Premiere
Marla Phelan, 2022, USA, 3m
In the wake of a tragedy, a chorus of mourners gather to perform a ritual dance of grief. Through waves of interconnected movement, symbolic gestures, and processions, these women, their faces covered by veils of black hair, dance to grieve the loss of a loved one. The Fell of Dark was made in response to the hundreds of thousands of lives lost to the opioid crisis and for the families who have been silenced by its stigma.

The Game
New York City Premiere
Pierre Marais and James Kinney, 2022, USA, 4m
Paying homage to classic film noir cinema, The Game brings together an unlikely cast of characters in a midnight game of cat and mouse. In a mysterious abandoned warehouse the story is told through a hybrid of jazz dance styles. Alliances are forged, suspicions are raised, and from the shadows, a player will ultimately take the prize.

The Dance After the Last Dance
New York/East Coast Premiere
Candice Holdorf, 2022, USA, 9m
Grief and loss are viscerally physicalized in The Dance After the Last Dance. This cathartic film explores the healing power of movement, darkness, and private grief.

Suck It Up
New York City Premiere
Baye & Asa, 2022, USA, 13m
Heteronormative advertising campaigns tell men that they are weak, small, balding, and flaccid. These commercial images promise status, offer solutions to inadequacy, and breed entitlement. Men mimic this commercialized masculinity and act out when they are not rewarded. Internalized deficiency creates a culture of resentment and has led to violence. This duet confronts the violent fallout.

I was waiting for the echo of a better day
New York City Premiere
Jeremy Jacob and Pam Tanowitz, 2021, USA, 26m
A stunningly original dance for film, I was waiting for the echo of a better day unfolds from dawn to dusk on a single midsummer day, with dancers in electric blues and yellows weaving through the sumptuous, overgrown landscape of a historic Hudson Valley estate, overlooking the river and the Catskill Mountains. Inspired by the French New Wave, filmmaker Jeremy Jacob has created an intimate reframing of Pam Tanowitz’s angular and sensual choreography, originally developed for a live, outdoor performance at Bard College’s Montgomery Place Campus. The film features the dancers of Tanowitz’s company and music by composer Jessie Montgomery and her ensemble, Big Dog Little Dog.