A showcase of the best dance films from around the world today.
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK:
Best Performances: Ascent
Best Dance Film: Daffodils
Best Visual Design: Dream’s Descent
Best Direction: Traces of Nowhere
Best Story: Telegraph
Best Choreography: Cailleach
Ascent, 2min., Netherlands
Directed by Robert Prein
A disillusioned man steps into an elevator, lost in life and ridden of any passion and purpose. As the elevator ascends, each floor becomes a metaphorical stage of risk and bravery. First subtle, but as he ascends to the higher floors, life becomes more thrilling and exciting and eventually even dangerous. With each stop, his appetite for this adventure grows, pushing him to abandon caution and embrace the unknown. But as he nears the top, a force intervenes, warning him of the cost of excess. Refusing to be held back, he breaks free and forces the ascent to the highest floor.
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/audience-feedback-ascent
Daffodils, 9min., Canada
Directed by Sophie Barbarics
No way out. These strings we have, both the visible and invisible.
Tie us to places, people and faith.
Hold us so tight even when we are literally running away.’
http://www.sophiebarbarics.com/
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/audience-feedback-daffodils
DREAM’S DESCENT, 10min., South Africa
Directed by Sara Gouveia, Inka Kendzia, Gregory Maqoma
“Dream’s Descent” is a hauntingly surreal dance film that traces the journey of a solitary dancer as he navigates a dreamlike landscape fractured by memory, identity and desire. Drawn into a shifting world where time dissolves and space contracts, he encounters fragmented versions of himself, each embodying a suppressed emotion, forgotten trauma or repressed aspiration. Through ritualistic choreography and symbolic confrontations, these encounters blur the line between self and shadow. As the dancer spirals deeper into the labyrinth of his subconscious, the movement becomes a language of reckoning.
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/audience-feedback-dreams-descent
Trace of Nowhere, 33min., Japan
Directed by Rel Stott
One performer. No words. A vision of absence and presence.
reistottreistott@gmail.com
https://www.instagram.com/rei.stott
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/audience-feedback-trace-of-nowhere
Telegraph, 3min., USA
Directed by Cooper Troxell
An optical telegraph operator in 1830s France struggles with a monotonous job.
https://www.instagram.com/cotroxell
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/audience-feedback-telegraph
CAILLEACH, 9min., USA
Directed by Heather Bentley
Cailleach is a short aerial dance film exploring the archetype of the Irish goddess of winter. Cailleach is a creator, winter goddess, wise woman, and one who represents the nature of life, death and rebirth. In this aerial film, a ritual is done in which Cailleach is calling winter with a transformation into a raven to reign over the barren winter landscape.
https://www.instagram.com/itsabigworldbaby
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/audience-feedback-caileach
Experimental Film & Music Video Festival 