In a world seemingly gone mad with conflict and uncertainty, works of art can inform, distract, comfort and give us all strength to keep fighting the good fight. As festival director Yvonne Ng points out: “The arts respond. The arts provide”. With that in mind, we invite you to engage with our screendance programming over one in-person and three online screenings. A collection of mostly new work from across the country, these succinct and poetic works exhibit a dazzling range of sensibilities and approaches. We’ve programmed them thematically to make the most of their beauty and technical accomplishment. We hope these groupings inspire and refresh you – happy viewing!
– Kathleen Smith,
Arts Encounters dancefilm programmer
Kinship
Series Three | Sat Aug 23, 12:30pm | Register
Mercy
“The hands of the dancers are the hands of my mother and sister, the hands of our grandmother, the hands of their mothers.” These words of celebrated American poet Cornelius Eady serve as an anchor for the short film “Mercy” that weaves poetry and imagery, with gesture, movement and voice into an intricate meditation on black womanhood. Eady’s eponymous cycle of poems is informed by the writing of Phillis Wheatley, the first enslaved person in the American Colonies to publish a full-length volume of poems.
The poetic short, directed by Philip Szporer, voices issues of race, place, and identity, and dives into the double-voiced discourses of a particular Black literary tradition concerning the complication of the slave learning their captor’s language.
Two celebrated dance artists, Angélique WIllkie and Amara Barner, embody the poetry through the power of their presence
Director: Philip Szporer
Writer: Philip Szporer
Producer: Marlene Millar, Philip Szporer
Key Cast: Angélique Willkie, Amara Barner
Director of Photography: Pablo Córdoba Salcido
Movement Director: Ami Shulman
Music Composer: Devon Bate
Sound Designer: Devon Bate
Colour Grading: Philip Szporer
Philip Szporer
I have been immersed in the world of Canadian dance, spanning dance arts, performance, journalism, education and film for over 40 years. I have presented artistic works internationally, speaking at artistic events and educational institutions as well as hosting workshops that promote the knowledge of dance and dance cinema. I am also a researcher and continue to mentor emerging artists.
In 2001 I co-founded Mouvement Perpétuel, a media arts production company based in Montreal, with Marlene Miller, and we have received numerous awards for our work there. Together, we co-directed and co-produced an acclaimed collection of documentaries, dance short films and installation works. These impressionist creations have been described as “a
deeply intimate tracing of the curvatures of the human experience.”
In 2018, I co-founded Dance+Words with Kathleen Smith, an initiative to disseminate ideas and facilitate discussions around dance and the movement arts. These projects reflect an intergenerational, inclusive, respectful, and curious attitude towards reflection and commitment to the Canadian dance scene.
I currently teach at Concordia University and in 2016 I was recognized with the Faculty of Fine Arts Excellence in Teaching Award. I have also been a researcher in residence at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts (2000-2016). In 1999, I was awarded a Pew Scholarship (National Dance/Media Project) from the University of California, Los Angeles and in 2010 I was honoured with the Jacqueline Lemieux Award awarded by the Arts Council of Canada.
I have also worked as a journalist for CBC Radio, for the radio magazine Aux Arts, etc. of Radio-Canada, as well as correspondent for The World (BBC/WGBH-Boston). My writings on dance have been published in The Dance Current, Tanz and Dance Magazine, among others. I have also contributed to academic essays and chapters in works such as Motion Pictures: Dance’s Duet with the Camera (Palgrave Macmillan), Envisioning Dance on Film and Video (Routledge) and The Oxford Handbook on Jewishness and Dance (Oxford University Press).
The Pink Thread
Featuring dancer/choreographer Caroline Niklas-Gordon, Melanie Gordon’s short film, The Pink Thread, shares a woman’s fantastical encounter with her living room curtains, exploring how we untangle ourselves from the threads that bind to find power in the threads we bear.
Director: Melanie Gordon
Writer:
Producer: Melanie Gordon
Choreographer: Caroline Niklas-Gordon
Cinematographer: Melanie Gordon
Key Cast: Caroline Niklas-Gordon
Melanie Gordon
Melanie Gordon is a photographer and filmmaker who for 25 years has been examining how we see ourselves and how we are seen. Her work responds to dominant cultural narratives about female roles and investigates how women and girls relate to agency, power, and freedom.
Forward Back
With movement inspired by Merce Cunningham’s iconic piece “50 Looks,” a group of dancers move together through a vast landscape seemingly plucked from an alternate future. Just as changing light infiltrates the choreography, so do 35mm negative manipulations, compelling the dancers to engage with forces beyond time.
Director: Mistaya Hemingway, Kaveh Nabatian
Writer: Mistaya Hemingway, Erin Flynn, Isabelle Poirier
Producer: Mistaya Hemingway, Erin Flynn, Isabelle Poirier
Key Cast: Mistaya Hemingway, Erin Flynn, Isabelle Poirier, Bernard Martin, Lucie Grégoire, Raul Human, Diego Cervantes
Mistaya Hemingway
Mistaya Hemingway is a freelance dancer, filmmaker and choreographer living in Montreal. She has danced with the Dutch National Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and was a soloist with La La La Human Steps for seven years. Mistaya also studied acting in New York City, and earned a degree in urban planning. In the last few years, Mistaya has been exploring the film form, collaborating on mixed media projects (Moment Factory, PY1, 4U2C, MAPP_MTL), and creating work in the public space (Do it in the Road, Sidewalk, Trackdance, Espace libre pour la culture). She has also created visuals for Justin Timberlake , Patrick Watson, Islands and Karneef. Mistaya is directing and producing her own screendance projects (At Lake, Tampopo Redux, Naïade) and is currently developing an immersive dance/architecture mixed reality installation. Forward Back is Mistaya’s first collaboration with director, Kaveh Nabatian.
Kaveh Nabatian
Kaveh Nabatian is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian director and musician whose evocative filmmaking has brought to life stories from the margins of society and across the world: Haiti, Nunavut, New York and beyond. His film work ranges from A Crack in Everything, a feature doc about Leonard Cohen, to masterminding the Rotterdam-premiering, experimental, seven-director anthology feature The Seven Last Words, to his feature narrative debut, the Cuba-set and shot Sin La Habana.
His cinematic collaborations with musicians include projects with with Arcade Fire, The Barr Brothers and Leif Vollebekk. And as a composer and trumpet player, he’s toured the world and released several critically-acclaimed albums with his Juno award-winning band Bell Orchestre.
Committed to cinema education and outreach, Kaveh continues to work with emerging filmmakers at Haiti’s Cine Institute and in the Alqonquin community of Kitigan Zibi.
SYZYGY
Syzygy (si·zuh·jee) is an abstract dance film following flashy club creatures on a playful cinematic search for fun. In psychology, “syzygy” describes integrating different aspects of the self, such as the conscious and unconscious, the masculine and feminine, or the rational and irrational. In astrology, a syzygy is a straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies, such as the sun, moon, and earth, during a solar or lunar eclipse, so it’s totally cosmic.
Performers: Louise Lecavalier, Rémy Saminadin, George Stamos
Assistant Director/Shoot Director: Sonya Stefan
Director of Photography/Camerawork: Teagan Lance, Maxime Pelletier-Huot
Wigs: Stephane Scotto
Costumes: Antonio Ortega
Makeup Artist: Joffrey Dumas
Lighting Design: Josée Brouillard
Drummer: Rémy Saminadin
Original Drum Recording Mixer: Roger White
Editorial Consultant: Alison Murray
Director/Choreographer/Editor/Sound Designer: George Stamos
George Stamos
Originally from Nova Scotia, transdisciplinary artist George Stamos holds a BA in Art/Choreography from Amsterdam University of the Arts and a Graduate Diploma in Communication Studies from Concordia University. His practice is rooted in an interest in the unique and contrasting qualities of human sensations and the performativity of life. George’s Filmworks spans the genres of surreal-experimental, LGBTQ+ cinema, road movies, dance films and documentary.
ODEON
Is a dance film created and produced by Meghann Michalsky.
Odeon features two performers who have been placed in an arena where they were left behind to begin again.
They are dealing with a state of emergency – an end-of-world apocalypse. The landscape is bare, broken – only the performers and sand in sight. They are distraught, crumbling, and panicking about their survival on their quest for water.
An allegory of longing for something so much that we lose sight of what is currently happening. When we arrive – the destination feels different from what we expected or dreamt of. The performers surrender the sins of humanity and prevail with an innate understanding of both past and present.
However, is Odeon a spectacle that “will repeat again”?
Odeon comments on survival, evolution, mutation, human extinction, environmental devastation, water crisis, capitalist mindset, apocalyptic warnings, grappling with our place in this collapsing world, and the spectacle of control.
Director: Meghann Michalsky
Producer: Meghann Michalsky, Canada Council for the Arts
Key Cast: Meghann Michalsky, Katherine Semchuk
Meghann Michalsky
Meghann Michalsky is an independent Dance Artist and filmmaker working in Calgary, Alberta.
She received the 2019 RBC Emerging Artist Award at the Mayor’s Lunch for Arts Champions and she was the 2025 recipient of the Final Tuning Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. She is the first Dancer/Choreographer in Alberta to receive both of these achievements.
Ms. Michalsky completed her BA in Contemporary Dance, concentration in Choreography and Performance from the University of Calgary. Since graduating she has rigourously pursued her dance technique training in Canada as well as in Israel, Portugal, Sweden, the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Austria.
One of her touring works, Maybe We Land, has travelled to five Canadian cities, earning nominations for two Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
As a dancer, you’ve seen her dance for an array of individual artists and companies, including Karissa Barry, Laja Feild of LajaMartin, Davida Monk, Linnea Swan, Michele Moss, kloetzel&co, Cloudsway Dance Theatre, Dancing Monkey Laboratories, J-Sik Movements, & Dancers’ Studio West – Lab Emerging Artist Program (2016) & Physic/Alchemy (2018), amongst others.
Her most recent choreographic works have been presented at Dance Made in Canada | fait au Canada, artsPlace, University of Calgary, Chutzpah Festival, Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre, Project InTandem, Fluid Festival, Stream of Dance Festival, Convergence & abroad in Finland. Her research starts with her trust in the body and investigating how bodily experiences are deeply embedded. She creates highly visceral works that combine intense musculature and athletic physicality. Her movement signature has been described as vigorous, raw, and intricate. Her knowledge of Hip-Hop and Krump movement principles has influenced her development of isolated, rhythmic, bound, and fast-twitch movement qualities into her contemporary choreographies.
She has received funding from Calgary Arts Development, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Canada Council for the Arts and has been awarded Choreographic Residencies from the Centro Jobel (Italy), Vitlycke Arts Centre (Sweden), New Dance Horizons (Regina), University of Calgary, W & M Dance Projects, Theatre Junction, Dancers’ Studio West and DJD Dance Centre.
Odeon is Michalsky’s third professional dance film.
nature is everything, everywhere all at once
Series One | Thur Aug 21, 12:00pm | Register
Ce qui subsiste/ What Remains
Waking up is always peaceful for Bo as he embarks on a day like any other doing what he loves most: collecting polymers. As he surveys his territory, he encounters a huge flying plastic body that triggers an irreversible magnetism in him. Everything he knows is rocking; his conception of the world is crumbling at the same speed as the ground beneath his feet and his skin morphing into elasticity. Overwhelmed with worry, Bo tries to escape his physical reality as well as his psychic one, to finally find refuge in his new and adapted routine.
A story about our identities forged by the territory(ies) and the correlation of our collapses. An ultimate attempt to preserve what remains.
Director: Vickie Grondin
Vickie Grondin
A graduate of the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, Vickie Grondin has directed more than 100 creations over four years with her Flamant collective. Candidate for a master’s degree in visual arts at the University du Québec à Montreal, she pursues theoretical, political and sensitive research on the intimate relationship between the body and the territory.
7Y98D
7y98D unites two dynamic voices to develop a timely and relevant piece focusing on the impacts of climate change. Street dance-based artists RubberLegz (Germany/USA) and OURO Collective (Canada) collaborate with Canadian filmmakers Dave Ehrenreich and Jeff Hamada to produce a multi-disciplinary project that emphasizes existing global issues viewed through an abstract lens.
The work is inspired by The Climate Clock, a public art installation created by artists Gan Golan and Andrew Boyd set on Manhattan’s Union Square, which depicts the remaining time to avoid climate disaster. According to the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC, if greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rate, the average global temperature will continue to rise and become irreversible. Golan and Boyd began counting down on September 17th, 2020, from 7 years, 103 days, 15 hours, 40 minutes, and 7 seconds – OURO became aware of the Climate Clock when it was down to 7 years and 98 days.
The short film has also led to a creation of a full-length dance work with the five dancers from the film.
Director: Jeff Hamada
Director: David Ehrenreich
Key Cast: Eric Cheung, Ash Cornette, Rina Pellerin, Shana Wolfe
Producer: OURO Collective
Choreographer: Rauf Yasit
Jeff Hamada
In 2008 Jeff Hamada created Booooooom.com, a global arts & culture publication based in Canada—the largest of its kind in the country. He has spoken at creative conferences around the world including: IAM (Barcelona), CARBON (Australia), 180 CREATIVE CAMP (Portugal), POW!WOW! (Taiwan + Hawaii), CREATIVE MORNINGS (Vancouver), BLEND (Vancouver).
Clients: Mercedes, Red Bull, MTV, Adobe, VICE, Sony, Converse, WeTransfer, Levi’s, Oakley, Native Shoes, Flexfit, Ray Ban, Vitamin Water, Nixon, Jameson, Herschel Supply, Nikon.
David Ehrenreich
David Ehrenreich is a filmmaker best known for his blending of narrative verite with cinematic imagery. This marriage of beauty and realism shows though in his viral works like ‘Watermelon’, ‘Man Behind the Mountain’ and on the Viceland series ‘Abandoned’. Drawn to filmmaking as the perfect medium to explore the universal experience of the agony and delight of life, he’s travelled the world filming and exploring and telling people’s stories.
He’s most recently finished series for CBC Sports and Viceland, as well as a succession of Vimeo Staff Picks. He’s currently based in Vancouver balancing narrative, experimental and commercial pursuits.
BARK
Bark is the quiet erosion of disguise, the moment of true colours pressing through the cracks. It is the weight of staying hidden too long. It clings like camouflaged skin, peeling in layers—mask after mask—until the rawness beneath shows through. The body shifts: blends into concrete, clashes against trees. Which is safer? Which lasts? In movement it flickers—seen, unseen.
Director: Kendra Epik
Composer: Daniel Katsoras
Kendra Epik
Kendra Epik is a Toronto-based dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and photographer specializing in movement-based storytelling. With a background in dance, she brings a deep understanding of physicality and emotion to her work behind the camera.She produces dance films through local commissions and independent projects. Her current film, Bark, commissioned by RT Collective, is set to premiere in Spring 2025. Her film Sunglow Gecko, commissioned by F-O-R-M (Festival of Recorded Movement), has received significant recognition, winning the Youth Innovation Award, earning honorable mentions at Manifest Dance-Film Festival and ReelHeART International Film Festival, and becoming a semifinalist at the Dumbo Film Festival. As a freelance videographer and photographer, Kendra has collaborated with organizations including The Bentway, Toronto Dance Theatre, Fall for Dance North, Blue Ceiling Dance, ProArteDanza, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, TOES FOR DANCE, and Nostos Collective, among others. She is dedicated to capturing movement authentically, offering a cinematic perspective on dance and performance while pushing creative boundaries with integrity.
Unity House
In the dystopian world of the future, an unknown virus makes all living organisms on the planet arrange into patterns, recreate things and materialize human thoughts. 4 people live in a secluded home under observation as the virus comes in the form of their former lover.
A contemporary dance screen adaptation of Tatsiana Zamirovskaya’s short story Inside You In Your Absence.
Credits + Bios
Director: Daria Zapriagaeva
Writer: Tatsiana Zamirovskaya
Producer: Stephen Trivieri, Lizzie Han, Susannah Haight, Daria Zapriagaeva
Key Cast: Sadiya Lopinto, Brin Schoellkopf, Jess Mak, Kaelin Isserlin, Evan Webb
Taha, Ua (One, Two)
Combining poetry, dance and film, “Taha, Ua (One, Two)” navigates the grief of displacement, the kinship of community, and the resistance in reconnection. The film explores what it means to be “home” from an Indigenous diaspora perspective.
Credits + Bios
Director: Ngaire May Lyden-Elleray
Writer: Ngaire May Lyden-Elleray
Producer: Ngaire May Lyden-Elleray
Key Cast: Annelie Wells, Nenaa’ikiizhikok May Erdrich
Somber Tides
SOMBER TIDES a cry from the species, startled into survival against the elements. One last breath before being trampled by the Earth or maybe conversely a battle to wage against winds and tides clutching on before extinction
Credits + Bios
Director: Chantal Caron
Writer: Chantal Caron
Producer: Chantal Caron
Key Cast: Léa Lavoie-Gauthier, Marie-Maude Michaud, Geneviève Robitaille
Chantal Caron
Choreographer and filmmaker Chantal Caron’s visual signature has always been inspired by the St. Lawrence River and the natural elements that make up its ecosystem. Her works are inspired by the living and embodied in contemporary dance. A member of the Order of Canada and recipient of CALQ’s “Artist of the Year” award in 2023, her short films have been selected and awarded around the world since 2015 for their unique aesthetics.
the march of time and its stragglers
Series Two | Fri Aug 22, 12:00pm | Register
What She Holds
What She Holds is a short dance film exploring a woman’s experience and sensation of mothering young children; love, isolation, brain fog, deep connection, deep fatigue, a shifting sense of self, an elastic sense of time, a desire for space.
Director: Kate Holden
Key Cast: Kate Holden
Kate Holden
Award winning dance artist, Kate Holden, has had the pleasure of interpreting the works of many esteemed Canadian choreographers, with performances across North America, France, Britain, Holland, and Singapore. She spent five seasons as a company member of Dancemakers under the direction of Michael Trent and was a dancer with the Danny Grossman Dance Company for two seasons. Kate spent many years working closely with mentor Peggy Baker, and was Associate Artist with Peggy Baker Dance Projects from 2019 to 2023. Kate received her formal training at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and spent many years in Tkaronto engaged in the dance community as an interpreter, rehearsal director, teacher, creator, and producer.
Kate’s practice as a dance artist is influenced by her work as a Craniosacral Therapist and Reflexologist and her curiosity for finding ease and pleasure in an expansive moving body.
Kate lives in Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia where she plays, learns and works by the Pijinuiskaq (LaHave River).
Les mots d’amour
“Les mots d’amour” is a short poetic dance film portraying an elderly woman who is trapped in solitude. Alone in a world without human connections, she finds refuge in the mysterious companionship of her feathered neighbours—the pigeons. Her desperate longing for love transforms into an obsession, blurring the line between reality and illusion.
Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the project is a collaboration between filmmaker Laetitia Demessence, choreographer Diana León, and pianist Marc Bourdeau.
Director: Laetitia Demessence
Writer: Laetitia Demessence, Diana León
Producer: Laetitia Demessence, Marc Bourdeau
Director of Photography: Yann-Manuel Hernandez
Choreography: Diana León
Artistic Direction: Camila Castillo
Lighting Director: Amine Sahed
Sound Designer: Benoit Dame
Composer: Lionel Daunais
Lyricist: Eloi De Grandmont
Performer: Jacqueline Woodley (voice), Marc Bourdeau (piano)
Sound Recording and Editing: Philippe Bouvrette, Haruka Nagata
Film Editing: Laetitia Demessence
Colour Grading: Yann-Manuel Hernandez
Key Cast: Louise Bédard (“Elderly Woman”), Isabel Cruz (“Dancer 1”), Raphaëlle Sealhunter (“Dancer 2”), Christopher Laplante (“Dancer 3”), James Viveiros (“Dancer 4”)
Laetitia Demessence
Laetitia Demessence is a Franco-Spanish director and screenwriter who grew up in Spain, Indonesia and Chile before emigrating to Québec to study film at the Université de Montréal. She is a permanent resident of Canada, in addition to holding French and Spanish citizenships.
Since completing her university degrees, she explores directing through various short film projects, music videos, and dance films.
In 2021, her short film “Le vol des chenilles” was presented at the THESS International Short Film Festival, Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival, and Rendez-vous Québec cinéma. Following this project, she obtained support from the Canada Council for the Arts to finance her most recent short film, “La grande chasse”.
In 2019, her short “La faim du monde” was screened at the Fantasia International Festival, the Trondheim Minimalen Short Film Festival, and the Molins de Rei Film Festival.
Laetitia is currently finishing her first feature film, “Chemins de terre”, for which she received support from Telefilm Canada. She developed this project at INIS as part of the Écriture 2021-2022 programme, where she was recipient of the Louise Spickler Excellence Scholarship.
In Petrichor Daze
In Petrichor Daze tells the story of a pleasant encounter with an unmet acquaintance, an unfolding duality that explores the existence of the other only through the idea of them.
Valentine Dumec: Director/Editor
Bob L’Heureux: Director of Photography
Elise Fleske: 1st AC
Ryan Leedu: Production Assistant
Julian Koroluk: Behind the Scenes Photographer
Shannon Lin: Producer/Choreographer/Dancer
Foundry Room: Location
Shawn Bracke: Project Mentor
Colourist: Benjamin San Martin
Kevin Lin: Piano and Composer Jeremie Gutierrez
Benjamin Caufield: Drums
Liam Shearer: Trumpet
Levon Vokins: Recording Engineer, Mixing, and Mastering
Stephen Cameron: Recording Assistant
“In Petrichor Daze” was developed with the support of Mile Zero Dance Society and the Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta for REELING: Dance on Screen Festival in 2023.
Valentine Dumec
Valentine (Tino) Dumec is an emerging director and producer based in Edmonton, Alberta. Driven by a passion for storytelling and creating unique and visually captivating narratives, Tino is committed to crafting films that resonate deeply with audiences. His work emphasizes the power of imagery to enhance narrative depth, aiming to engage viewers through both story and aesthetic.
This Feeling
A young boy feels himself slipping away, his identity unraveling with each passing moment. Once-familiar emotions fade, and his reflection becomes a stranger. He drifts further from himself, lost in the weight of everything he can no longer recognize.
Director: Neil Lordson Tangcuangco
Key Cast: Neil Lordson Tangcuangco
Neil Lordson Tangcuangco
Neil Lordson is a Toronto-based artist, choreographer, and Creative Director committed to uplifting others through dance, community, and purpose-driven art. He believes in the potential of individuals and strives to inspire others to grow into their most authentic selves.
An alumnus of ADDO Company and UHHU, and the founder of the creative organization OneTwoUs, Neil continues to evolve as an educator and director across multidisciplinary platforms.
Lately, he’s been slowly picking up his camera again, rediscovering the intersection of dance and film. His self-made short film reflects this journey, offering a visual on identity, memory, and change.
Inspired by the song “This Feeling” by Alabama Shakes, the film follows a young man grappling with isolation as his sense of self begins to blur. Stuck in memories and mirrored reflections, he clings to the people who shaped him, unsure whether he’s witnessing a quiet unravelling or the start of transformation. The film asks; what does it mean to lose yourself, and is that loss part of becoming?
Everybody’s Headed for the Exit
At the intersection of percussion and contemporary dance. Disciplined & wild, leaving behind society’s constraints without hesitation. Booming, rumbling, beating and nudging us towards the exit.
We’re introduced to a fabricated world, where things are familiar yet different from our memory. The space and our perception of the world is expanding. Cracks are forming. A lone dancer navigates this shifting world, accompanied by a musician seen only on the peripheries. The dancer dismantles the constructed world as her curiosities lead her somewhere new. What will she find beyond the everyday rhythm, and where can imagination take her?
Director: Eric Pauls
Writer: Catherine Hayward
Producer: Catherine Hayward
Key Cast: Davida Monk (“Dancer”), Jon McCaslin (“Musician”)
Eric Pauls
Eric Pauls is a renowned filmmaker known for his exploration of existential themes through insightful character studies. His film journey commenced with the creation of both narrative and documentary shorts, paving the way for his feature-length directorial debut, “To the Mountain.” This captivating film premiered at the esteemed Oakville Film and Art Festival, earning recognition as a Standout Discovery on iTunes and being lauded as a masterpiece of “Wistful Poignancy” by the National Post.
Following this success, Pauls impressed audiences with his thought-provoking documentary, “Rosebud, Alberta,” which premiered at the Edmonton International Film Festival. Eric Pauls continues to venture into diverse genres and mediums, including directing for True-crime series, music videos, and commercials. He has been recognised as a finalist for the esteemed Sundance Writers Lab and won numerous awards for his work. He also has utilized his storytelling prowess and documentary filmmaking skills to make a meaningful contribution to research and systems thinking within Government, Healthcare, and Social Innovation.
For more insights into Eric Pauls’s inspiring body of work and projects, please visit his official website at ericpauls.com.
Oblique Strategies
Series Four | Sun Aug 24, 12:00pm | Register
Le Néant
Le Néant is cinematic rendition of Spicey’s lastest creation, La Probabilité du Néant. Will indifference to the Other get the better of us? In her first directorial debut, Spicey grounds the genesis of this dance film in the “bystander effect”. Is the witness an observer or an accomplice? Néant challenges our perceptions, our judgments, and the consequences of our choices. In the strange possibility of our own self-destruction, it also reminds us of our luminous capacity for resistance and resilience.
Director: Alexandra Landé, George Allister, Patrick Boivin
Writer: Alexandra Landé
Producer: Alexandra Landé
Key Cast: Jaleesa Coligny (“TEA LEAF”), Alexandre Philippe-Beaudoin (“BIBIMAN”), Ja James Britton Johnson (“JIGSAW”), Elie-Anne Ross (“RAWSS”), Kosi Eze (“CO-SEE”), James-Lee Joseph (“KIDDY”), Jean-Edouard Pierre-Toussaint (“DARQK”)
DOP: Patrick Boivin, Will Mackenzie
Artistic Direction: Alexandra SPICEY Landé, Frédérique PAX Dumas
Music Score: Richard Shash’U St-Aubin
Filmographer: George Allister
Alexandra Landé, George Allister, Patrick Boivin
Chorégraphe montréalaise et figure majeure de la danse hip-hop au Québec, c’est en 2005 que ‘Spicey’ débute sa carrière de chorégraphe. La relation symbiotique qu’elle entretient avec la danse et la culture Hip-Hop dans son travail chorégraphique constitue l’essence de sa signature artistique.
À titre de chorégraphe indépendante, ‘Spicey’ présente trois œuvres au Québec entre 2008 et 2015 dont Retrospek, récompensé par la bourse RIDEAU – Entrées en scène Loto Québec en 2009, qui influence une génération de street dancers montréalais. Dans le même temps, le Festival Bust A Move qu’elle a fondé en 2005 (jusque 2015) s’impose comme la plus grande compétition de danses de rue au Canada ; la TOHU en devient le coprésentateur.
Désirant pousser loin ses aspirations artistiques, et faire rayonner la création en street dance sur les scènes de danse contemporaine, ‘Spicey’ fonde en 2015 la compagnie Ebnflōh. Elle y aborde le langage hip-hop sous un nouvel angle chorégraphique, à la fois exploratoire, original et authentique, entourée de complices et de pairs qui alimentent le processus créatif.
La compagnie imagine de nouvelles façons de créer, et de partager ses réflexions sur des enjeux sociaux, politiques et artistiques. Spicey crée Complexe R au MAI en 2015, une œuvre inspirée de nos obsessions humaines. Le spectacle voyage jusqu’à New York et Amsterdam. En 2019, elle présente In-Ward avec 6 interprètes, un spectacle qui met en scène un groupe d’individus isolés, coproduit par le CCOV. Le spectacle joue à guichet fermé à 9 reprises à Montréal. ‘Spicey’ remporte en 2019 le Prix de la Danse de Montréal, catégorie Découverte, et In-Ward est finaliste au Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal en 2020.
La Probabilité du Néant, sixième œuvre de ‘Spicey’ et quatrième pour sa compagnie Ebnflōh, pose un regard lucide sur notre perception, notre jugement et les conséquences de nos choix et rappelle notre formidable capacité de résistance et de résilience. Celle-ci fut présenté au Théâtre Maisonneuve par Danse Danse à l’automne 2021 à guichet fermé.
Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé est aussi interprète et professeure de danse hip-hop depuis plus de deux décennies. Elle est régulièrement invitée à offrir des classes de maître et à agir comme juge sur des compétitions de street dance ici et à l’international.
VideoCompany, founded by George Allister and Patrick Boivin, is a video production agency specializing in directing, producing, creative direction, documentary, commercials, campaigns, branded content, and projection design. With close to 20 years of experience, they have a rigorous, innovative and interdisciplinary approach towards image making. Storytelling and collaboration is at the heart of everything they do, and nothing excites them more than bringing visions to life, turning dreams into reality. VideoCompany regularly collaborates with independent artists as well as some of Canada’s leading organisations including The National Arts Centre, The Siminovitch Theatre Foundation, Canadian Stage, Black Theatre Workshop, VICE, Labatt Breweries and the SPCA. Visit www.videocompany.ca to see some of their work and don’t hesitate to reach out, they’d love to collaborate!
Alexandra Landé
A Montreal-based choreographer and major figure in hip-hop dance in Quebec, Spicey began her career as a choreographer in 2005. Her passion for this art form began in the 1980s when she was just a child. The symbiotic relationship she maintains with dance and hip-hop culture in her choreographic work is the essence of her artistic signature.
With Le Néant, Ebnfloh and Video Company want to put light on what an audience is unable to perceive on stage (close-ups, faces, micro-movements, unusual camera angles, intentions, etc.). The camera offers several possibilities as regards to having a closer look at the choreographic language and movement. This dance film will give the viewers an opportunity to get close and personal wth the work and its performers.
One Kind Favor
This short dance film is partially inspired by the Blues song “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean,” also known as “One Kind Favor,” recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson (1928). This film marries stark, moving images expressing solidarity between the players with the haunting song “Dead Man Singing” in a space between bottled-up rage, sorrow, and the question of kindness in the face of injustice.
“The measure of true kindness — which is different from nicety, different from politeness — is often revealed in those challenging instances when we must rise above the impulse toward its opposite, ignited by fear and anger and despair.”
Performers: Karla Etienne, George Stamos
Music: “Dead Man Singing” written by Patrick Duff, vocals by Little Annie, musician Paul Wallfisch
Director of Photography/Camerawork: Maxime Pelletier-Huot
Editorial Consultant: Alison Murray
Creative Contributor: Sara Shelton Mann
Director/Choreographer/Sound Designer/Editor: George Stamos
George Stamos
Originally from Nova Scotia, transdisciplinary artist George Stamos holds a BA in Art/Choreography from Amsterdam University of the Arts and a Graduate Diploma in Communication Studies from Concordia University. His practice is rooted in an interest in the unique and contrasting qualities of human sensations and the performativity of life. George’s Filmworks spans the genres of surreal-experimental, LGBTQ+ cinema, road movies, dance films and documentary.
Hairy Dreams
Hairy Dreams evokes the interior world of a lonesome yet carefree character. Through words and movement, this is a visual abstract tale, taking place in a white cave-like space made of paper. Within this sort of origami igloo, a surrealist puzzle of images portrays the everyday routine of a diligent being.
Through various incongruent actions, the character assembles and disassembles repeatedly its interior translucent world. In this quest for an interior castle, time is always present, haunting yet of precious companionship.
The daily routine eventually leads to the ultimate goal: the need to be fed in order to keep the dream flowing. Towards the end of the cycle, in a sort of “oneiric” and liberating flight, the character swiftly disappears into the paper walls of its imaginary castle.
Concept, direction: Lina Cruz
Cinematography: Xavier Madore
Performer: Geneviève Robitaille
Music and credits song: Philippe Noireaut
Costumes, props, decor, text and its narration: Lina Cruz
Sound mastering: Frédéric Salter
Filming team: La Conserve Média
Production and distribution: Fila 13 Productions
This film was made possible thanks to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
Lina Cruz
Two time Dora Mavor Moore Award recipient (Outstanding Original Choreography, 2017 and 2012) and nominated for the same award in 2015, Lina Cruz creates intricate works in which strangeness always goes hand in hand with playfulness.
After several years in Spain, Cruz joined the Montreal dance milieu in 1989, where she continued her dance career, receiving a second place award in the International Choreographic Competition of Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur in 1998 (Quebec). She founded Fila 13 Productions in 2003. She has created for dance companies and institutions across Canada and collaborated as choreographer with Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, Contemporary Opera Chants Libres, Orchestre Nouvelle Génération and various theatre and multidisciplinary projects, integrating dance to the visual arts.
Originally from Colombia, Cruz trained internationally with scholarships in schools such as: Joffrey Ballet School (New York), Victor Ullate Ballet School (Madrid), Luis Fuente Ballet School (Madrid), Mudra (Brussels, school associated with Béjart’s 20th Century Ballet). She also trained with ballet masters Aurelio Bogado, Irina Brecher, Luis Ruffo, Carmina Ocaña, among other notable dance teachers and creators. She has had a passion for martial arts, obtaining a brown belt in Shotokan Karate.
REFUGE
As our lives get mutated by different lands and cityscapes, what stays persistent? How do body memories get recycled / shared and where does the body-as-archive is practised to become a refuge to root ourselves during a migratory experience?
REFUGE draws from the corporeal memories of 10 dancers-singers who are engaged in a “movement through journeying process” of converging individual practices in a nomadic and rhythmic chorus of togetherness and home seeking/finding.
Director: Marlene Millar
Producer: Marlene Millar, Sandy Silva
Key Cast: Drew Bathory, Sonia Clarke, David Cronkite, Dominic Desrochers, Afia Douglas, Isaac Endo, Helene Lemay, Kimberly Robin, Sandy Silva, Bobby Thompson
Director of Photography: Kes Tagney
Choreographer: Sandy Silva
Marlene Miller
For over 30 years filmmaker Marlene Millar has created screen dance, documentaries and experimental media productions. With a background in design, contemporary dance and filmmaking (BFA Concordia University, Montreal), Marlene pursued graduate filmmaking at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, before she received a Pew Dance Media Fellowship at the University of California (Los Angeles). Millar’s expansive career was honoured at her first solo exhibition, a retrospective of her 30-year practice at Threshold Artspace, UK (2019).
Since 2000, Millar has co-created a critically acclaimed collection of dance media work with Philip Szporer through their production company, MOUVEMENT PERPÉTUEL. Their award-winning films have been broadcast nationally and widely circulated at international festivals and influential exhibition spaces: the 2010 Cultural Olympics, World Exhibition in Shanghai, and a UNESCO tour of Latin America.
Founded in 2014, the MIGRATION DANCE FILM PROJECT series (LAY ME LOW, PILGRIMAGE, MOVE, TRAVERSE, NAVIGATION), produced/directed by Millar and produced/choreographed by Sandy Silva, has garnered over 25 awards internationally. This process-driven continuum comes to life as Millar transposes the choreography to the screen, creating a poignant visual language that reveals the intricacies of these issue-driven, performative stories centred on migration.
Millar’s installation/experimental media works explore alternative forms of screens, capturing metaphoric histories and docu-fiction resonances—notably in the recent video installation WITNESS. Collaborations include: VR project SKELETON CONDUCTOR; stereoscopic 3D installation research project LEANING ON A HORSE, ASKING FOR DIRECTIONS (UCLA/UCSC); LOST ACTION: TRACE, stereoscopic (3D) live-action/animated film co-directed with Szporer (National Film Board of Canada); 1001 LIGHTS, installation co-created with Szporer (Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai, Jewish Museum of Australia, tour of Germany with Tanzrauschen) and film installations for live performance—TERMINUS and QUARANTAINE 4 x 4 (Société des arts technologiques/SAT) with the RED RABBIT PROJECT and SING JUK SING (Oboro)with visual artist Mary Sui Yee Wong.
Millar is a prolific educator teaching filmmaking workshops across continents at institutes such as Centre Imagine (Burkino Faso), Loikka (Helsinki) and has mentored documentary filmmakers in Iqaluit, Iglooklik, Cambridge Bay and Pangnirtung, Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic.
Going On Strike
In a public space reverberating with the echoes of protests, À bras-le-corps chronicles the birth of an insurrection. As chaos gradually unfolds, the mass of demonstrators forges a profound solidarity, coalescing into a unified entity and transforming the protest into a space of emancipation where the beauty of a group in fierce revolt is vividly expressed. Through a choreographic score, the film bridges our current fights with those of the past and future.
Director: Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin
Producer: Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin, Pierre Villepelet
Key Cast: Jontae McCroy, David Albert-Toth, Léonie Bélanger, Charles Brecard, Jimmy Chung, Xdzunum Danae Trejo, Stacey Désilier, Stéphanie Fromentin, Rowan Mercille, Liliane Moussa, Erin O’Loughlin, Lael Stellick, Ingrid Vallus
Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin
Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin is a Canadian director and artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Her artistic practice has moved from visual arts to film, immersive cinema, and video art.
Her work explores themes related to collectivity, spaces of exchange and cohabitation through sensory and embodied narrative forms that break away from traditional storytelling, often in an anthropological perspective. Combining dance and film, her stories examine how the body, whether individual or collective, interacts with and transforms through the spaces it inhabits.
Her works have been presented in Canada, Europe, and the United States. Her latest work, a virtual reality dance film, Bodies of Water, made its World Premiere at the 81st Mostra Venice International Film Festival.
Banner photo by Lula-Belle Jedynak, still from Choreo Poetic License.