Film Catalogue
Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones
Kaveh Nabatian, 2022, CA, HT, 67 min
On the night of August 14, 1791, a Vodou ritual took place in Bois-Caïman that became the precursor to a mass uprising against slavery and the birth of Haiti, the world’s first black independent republic. Since then, ceremonies of artistic and religious expression have been a mainstay of Haitian culture and its resistance to external oppression, poverty and natural disaster. Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones is an intoxicating creative and spiritual experience. In this captivating documentary, director Kaveh Nabatian worked closely with local dancers, musicians, fishermen, daredevil rollerbladers and priests to create a sensory immersion in these sacred rituals.
Until Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Tanin Torabi, 2023, IR, 13 min
We walk. We run. We fall. We hug those whom we love and then we run again. We walk together until the walls move.
The Key Is online potential
Tyler Carney-Faleatua, 2022, NZ, 11 min
'The Key Is' focuses on the idea of wanting to leave a space before one is ready. We see a dancer wanting to pass through this space but then quickly come to realise that they are not in control of this decision. In order to unlock the door, they have a lesson to learn. They need to embrace their whole self, including the ugly and dark parts. It is not until they honestly welcome a darker sense of themselves that they are allowed to leave. This story is portrayed through contemporary, street dance and krump movement that is brought alive though dancer, Ooshcon.
The Machines New Dutch
Publik Universal Frxnd, 2023, NL, 19 min
This short documentary follows two performers who mix traditional clog dancing from the North West of the UK with choreography for two modified fitness machines based on agricultural yokes. Clog dancing is said to have originated in East Lancashire from the weaving mills of the 19th century, where working women would tap to the rhythm of the machines. The film explores identity and belonging in the context of industrialisation and economic migration and how movement, as a result, has been transformed by it.
Carried in Silence Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Vilma Tihilä, 2023, FI, 11 min
Carried in Silence is an extract of a relation between a mother and a daughter. Through contemporary dance and classical music the film speaks about intergenerational trauma and suppressed emotions, carried in silence. The chain of generations is also reflected in the music of the film, composed by Isabella Leonarda in the 17th century – one of the few female composers of her era.
I dream no more I remember Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Dehors/Audela (Salvatore Insana, Elisa Turco Liveri), 2023, IT, 12 min
A gateway, a threshold and a figure pausing, maneuvering his being within a misplaced frame. I dream no more I remember is a palindrome film, a mystical ritual in a magical and archaic place. An homage to the poetry of Lorenzo Calogero.
Urban Genesis Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Fu Le, 2023, FR, VN, 18 min
Phuong is released from prison and returns to her home province. She finds Khang, her childhood sweetheart, but no longer recognizes her village. All the small factories in the province have closed, and the big city suddenly bristled with countless skyscrapers. Urban Genesis questions the place left to love when time passes faster than the clouds.
In the Same Boat Out of Competition
Mervi Junkkonen, Mia Malviniemi, 2023, FI, SE, 8 min
A film about the limits of the aging body and the boundless mind. Rauno's story takes us on a boat trip with his father. A journey of misadventures and his father's new Finnish record in cursing.
Fight or Flight New Dutch
Jody Geijsendorpher, 2023, NL, 12 min
In a dystopian world, freedom comes with ranking. An MMA fighter is about to step on the ring when his social anxiety disorder takes over. The only way he knows how to deal with his fears is to either fight or flight, but this only takes him further away from winning the game.
the_ongoing_process_of_trying_to_make_sense Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Martin Klukas, 2023, DE, 16 min
In the process of encountering an abandoned building, multi-disciplinary artist Martijn Klukas playfully tests our perception in a series of parables. Representation, decontextualization, deconstruction and sequentiality in text, image and sound playfully reveal an intuitive body that constantly searches for meaning and expanded connections.
SUPERSEXUAL online potential
Kosta Karakashyan, 2023, BG, IT, 6 min
A young Bulgarian man, riding the endless rollercoaster of workouts, anonymous sex, and dopamine, asks how to finally get off in a world where the body is everything. The film explores the obsession of queer men with their bodies as an object of desire, pleasure, and self-confidence and probes how the body is weaponized in fitness, sex, and hookup culture. Collecting footage from video games, 3D scans, online conversations, and archive footage of the ideal male body, the film asks if it is possible to completely detach from our bodies in this supersexual culture.
Trilogia New Dutch
Simon van der Zande & Marvin Beekhuijzen, 2023, BE, NL, 7 min
The discovery of a dance creature in the elevator of a theater sets in motion a cat and mouse play between performer and camera. Both are looking for the fragile harmony of a dance captured on film.
Two To Tango Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Dimitri Sterkens , 2021, BE, 18 min
Twelve world leaders assemble in a war room to play a game on life and death in which they have to dance tango. Last man standing.
This film is part of the online program but is not accessible on the territory of Belgium.
Forming Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Eve McConnachie & Chloe Rosser, 2022, GB, 6 min
A faceless, genderless body moves in tiny motions; twisting, twitching, stretching; transforming into curious, surreal and intimate shapes. Forming includes dancers with MS and examines the experience of living with a neurological condition. Developed from an artwork by Chloe Rosser and supported by Scottish Ballet.
A State of Thirst Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Ashavari Majumdar a.k.a Vajrasara, 2023, IN, 8 min
The human body and its most basic need is the subject of this minimalist film envisioning a water-scarce future. A young man stumbling along a path, hears the sound of water before dropping down in exhaustion. He opens his eyes to find himself in a bare landscape where a bottle of water sits on top of a very high pole.
Blue Funk online potential
Louise Coetzer, 2023, ZA, 13 min
Blue Funk charts the physicality of being afraid. As chain reaction, fear settles over its targets, exposing their innate sentient responses of freeze, fight, fawn, and flight. The resulting cacophony evokes the volatility of this moment in time, a mounting pressure edging towards its breaking point.
Mathilde New Dutch
Jocelyne Moreau, 2021, NL, 8 min
Mathilde is a short film based in parts of the 19th century novel 'A Love Story' by Dutch author Lodewijk van Deyssel. Mathilde is estranged from herself and her surroundings by a long-term illness. She is advised to go and live in the countryside for a while. One evening she comes out of her lethargy and has a breakthrough.
The Blue online potential
Kati Kallio, 2023, FI, 10 min
Sininen (The Blue) is a fairytale fantasy of a bird-like figure in the embrace of the forest. The central character of the film has evolved over the years as Vappu has searched for her power figure through dance and movement. The film depicts gentle strength and magical skills, independence and a self-directed ability to create life, meaning and encounters around her. Each of us has something unique to pass on. The script was written together with the performers and choreographed by Vappu Virkkula.
Little Movement New Dutch
Sergio Gridelli | Maaike van de Westeringh, 2023, NL, 8 min
Little Movement is a short dance film in which six patients with Huntington's disease are portrayed in a dream-like space where time is suspended. An intimate choreography shows us their positive energy, zest for life and resilience in their vulnerable and fragile existence.
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.