Thursday, SEPT 2nd, 18:30 – 20:00
AT CINÉMA ELVIRE POPESCO

11 short films that explore the human body in motion will engage our minds and stimulate our imaginations. Marvellous Worlds is a visual feast that includes cinematic experiments, audio-visual meditations, futuristic worlds, performative rituals and musical avatars in virtual cities. These unrecognizable worlds question the existing cultural paradigms as floating realities in which communication becomes synesthetic and the boundary between enchantment and nightmare has been completely erased.

WEAKNESS OF THE FLESH

6:16, 2021, USA
D: Kevin McGloughlin, Jacob Jonas
C: Jacob Jonas

Concrete, when dry, cemented and stuck. The body, delicate. When the mind is pushed, the potential of the defense system is revealed. Blank canvases and raw environments. The complexities of human nature exposed. Depth of understanding to the natural course. Society's normality can’t enslave us. The mind pushes to the body. The mind pushes towards the weak flesh. A rebound effect that continues. This is a universal temptation that repeats through time. Produced by Films.Dance.

DIVE

13:19, 2021, UK
D: Oscar Sansom
C: Sophie Laplane

Scottish Ballet’s Choreographer in Residence Sophie Laplane partners with James Bonas (The Crucible) and film director Oscar Sansom to create Dive, a short film inspired by French artist Yves Klein and what has become the world’s most famous shade of blue. Expect Laplane’s quintessentially quirky choreography paired with striking visuals in this teal-toned treat.

FIBONACCI

8:13, 2020, CZ
D: Tomáš Hubáček
C: Marie Gourdain

Human flock flows through wavy fields. An unenlightened hunter crosses its path. Environmental dance film or audiovisual meditation on Fibonacci patterns in the landscape, herd behavior, film structure and music.

STILL LIFE - TABEO

5:00, 2021, AUS
D: Ryan Renshaw
C: Jack Lister

Tabeo is part of Still Life, a triptych of three films inspired by the stage version. The films are the result of a 12-month COVID-enforced collaboration between Australasian Dance Collective and Kiosk Film.

ALL, OR NOTHING AT ALL

7:42, 2019, DK/NL
D: Margit Lukács, Persijn Broersen
C: Prakesh Baksii

In the streets of a deserted and distorted, digital version of the Danish town of Viborg, seven identical avatars perform a choreography based on the musical West Side Story, while singing All, or Nothing at All – originally sung by Frank Sinatra and re-interpreted by Danish singer Nina Vadshølt.

D3C05

3:42, 2021, USA
D: Blaze Gonzalez, Hannah Gaengler
C: Liony Garcia

At the height of the Art Deco movement, Miami’s architecture was widely recognized for its technological innovations - these structures generated an international sense of excitement and optimistic futurism. To this day, Miami still has one of the highest concentrations of Art Deco in the world. D3C05 envisions Miami Art Deco architecture in a post-human latinx world. Re-interpreting a future where power structures have shifted and latinx is the dominant cultural paradigm. Latin dialects, slang, historical references and digital stutter combine into a speculative digital language of the future. The film takes the idea of optimistic futurism and reimagines the concept within a digital space, where the boundaries between human, nature, and object coalesce; a world where synesthetic communication and performative rituals reign.

BEAST

10:43, 2021, CAN
D: Benjamin Nicolas

It’s Christmas Eve, Martin drives customers in his vehicle when suddenly, without any warning, his body begins to make uncontrolled movements.

INSOMNIA

4:25, 2021, UK
D: Emilia Izquierdo

Insomnia: Violent Nights explores violent waking life events as experienced in the dream insomniac state through dance and bodily movement. Using hand drawn animation and archival footage it takes us into the labyrinth of ancient forces battling oppression through dance and cosmic encounters.

COLOR ME

6:37, 2020, DK
D: Martin de Thurah

At times you find yourself on a dark road in a deep black valley. It is hard to orient yourself. You vaguely recall who you are, but it is hard to completely grasp, you have to lay down to dissolve into the ground. We all contain darkness. A door to a strange place, where the world falls apart and becomes unrecognizable. A floaty reality, almost dreamlike. How do we respond when we have to face our own fears and mortality, and is it possible to find tranquility within the world of our nightmares?

YOUR COFFEE, PLEASE

3:13, 2021, RU
D: Irina Kononova

Coffee runs down the arm to the disposable coffee cup. It reminds the blood from the vein. The smile appears and disappears on the young girl’s face. She must smile despite her state of mind. Her inner demons start to go outside. She acts like a strange animal or formless creature. The silent scream comes from her mouth. The girl’s arms turn into the wings, the body transforms itself. She has only one wish to destroy, to ruin everything around her and to run away as far as possible. Suddenly the girl awakes behind the bar in the coffee shop at her usual workplace. Young barista understands she runs too deep inside herself. She cheers herself up and goes on doing what doesn’t require special efforts: to make coffee and smile to people.

GHOSTS AND ALL

9:11, 2021, JP
D: Ayano Yokoyama

Where is the anima? Where is that going?

In July 2020, I filmed a dance video work in a vacant theater while many performances were canceled. I was thinking about all the performances around the world that were cancelled with nobody in the theater. Not only in dance, but also in other forms of art, I felt that something like the anima existed regardless of the people themselves, and as I looked at the unused equipment and space, I felt that it was more quiet than usual. There are so many things that we can see, but don't see. Perhaps it was because I hadn't danced under the lights in a long time when I was shooting, but my body felt hot and my mind was all over the place. I always think that it is my body that can take care of itself. I wish I could dance even after I die. A nine-minute film work with intricate hand-drawn animation and dance.