Open Call Film Screenings

1:00-2:00 pm – Program I: Open Call Official Selections

Play Where We’re Going (2019, 3 min, FL Premiere)
Dir. Heidi Duckler & Katherine Helen Fisher, Chor. Heidi Duckler
Filmed on the rooftop of the historic Bendix Building in Downtown Los Angeles where HDD has their offices, Where We’re Going is choreographed by Heidi Duckler and performed by HDD dancers, staff and several workers from the building. This work explores a sense of belonging and how we define family.

Liquid Path (2013, 4 min, FL Premiere)
Chor. & Dir. Mena Rusciano
Wore the dress of courage, migrant’s hope floats restless in the sea as a crammed message in a bottle that runs on uncertain trajectories.

Ghostly Labor: A Dance Film (2022, 13 min, FL Premiere)
Chor. Vanessa Sanchez, Dir. Vanessa Sanchez & John Jota Leanos
Ghostly Labor: A Dance Film explores the history of labor in the US–Mexico borderlands through Tap Dance, Mexican Zapateado, Son Jarocho, Afro Caribbean movement and music. This work brings together polyrhythmic movement and an original score to examine labor and the power and joy of collective resistance.

NYX (2021, 4 min)
Chor. & Dir. Miami Movement Collective: Enrique Villacreses, Maya Billig, Cecilia Benitez & Natalia Marie Rocamonde
NYX explores an inter-dimensional encounter between wandering entities. Through missed connections and crossing paths, the wanderers find themselves individually traveling through a sacred location hoping to encounter a greater purpose for their explorations. Using their curiosity and freedom, they discover that their journeys are interwoven across separate dimensions of space-and-time.

Skyscrapers – Skin Deep (2020, US Premiere)
Chor. Faizah Grootens, Dir. Ayra Kip, David van Delden
KIPrepublic presents an original poem (the Legendary Black Ice) and an interpretive dance, choreographed and performed by Faizah Grootens. Skindeep expresses one’s daily battle to turn noise inside one’s head into music, screeching voices into a choir, emotional clumsiness into dance and the paradox of this repetitive loop in search for belonging.

Seers (2021, Florida Premiere)
Chor. Faith Morrison, Dir. Robert Uehlin
Featuring original choreography from Faith Morrison and music from Michael Wall, Seers is a screendance exploring the feeling of a desert ecosystem and the frantic stillness of its inhabitants.

One Shilling (2022, US Premiere)
Chor. & Dir. Monica Nicolaides
One Shilling is a short dance film, inspired by true encounters of people in WWII; where 4 strangers from different backgrounds came together to enjoy a night out, in one of the underground places in London during the Blitz.

In-Visible (2021, Florida Premiere)
Chor. & Dir. Jesse Obremski
Stemming from the AAPI hate crimes and initiating the development of Obremski/Works’s AAPI Support Fellowships, In-Visible touches the common experience of AAPI individuals and feeling unheard, unrecognized, and unseen. Through this incredibly personal work, the full AAPI cast brings in experience, concepts, ideologies, trauma, and more to deepen this work.

OPEN DOOR/SECOND DOOR (2021, US Premiere)
Chor. & Dir. Flakorojas
After a long period of waiting, the doors finally open, but whoever was behind them no longer knows how to get out. Again, and again he approaches the edge, the boundary between the enclosure and the outside world, while an inquisitive clock records the moments.

I AM NOT OK (2022, Florida Premiere)
Chor. Gabrielle Lansner, Pat Hall, Dahsir Hausif, Dir. Gabrielle Lansner
A mother and son respond to the unending killings of Black Americans amidst the backdrop of the protests that followed the death of George Floyd. Dance and archival photographs are woven together to evoke fear, outrage, and anger and the need for communities to come together and find solutions.

Q&A to follow the program.

3:00-4:00 pm – Program II: Open Call Official Selections

La Galerie (2021, Florida Premiere)
Chor. Dir. Loup-William Theberge
During a nighttime visit to a museum, an unforeseen connection between a woman and a painting triggers an unexpected journey between the real and the unreal.

Further III (2020, World Premiere)
Chor. Hanna Kahrola, Dir. Mia Tiihonen
A screendance film about getting further, oncoming challenges and individual’s relationship to an environment that human has left behind. It is inspired by the everyday life superheroes, the elements stuck in a person and the challenge of standing on their feet.

Calling Me (2021, Florida Premiere)
Chor. & Dir. Kerine Jean-Pierre
“Black Women can be soft too.” Calling Me is a short dance film about women of color owning a small piece of Heaven on Earth. These women are limitless and free from any intimidation or struggles. Just like the Sun, their truest essence peaks through collectively highlighting each beauty without comparison.

Rock (2022)
Chor. & Dir. Amanda Whitworth, Vivian Beer, Christina Pitsch
Offered as a live performance or video installation, Rock is an exercise in feeling, sensing and watching risk. Weight, energy and time are shared between object and human to provoke feelings of uneasiness or awe in viewers.

Gliff (2021, Florida Premiere)
Chor. Anya Cloud, Eric Geiger, Dir. Rebecca Salzer
Gliff is a weaving of time and place and sound and bodies. Initiated six years ago in Alabama, the work reflects how our individual volumes of change, grief, and love intersect. The choreography was made first and music was made last, with many layers of composition and dialogue in between.

In Capsule (2021, Florida Premiere)
Chor. & Dir. Chelsea Ainsworth, Jessica Smith
In Capsule is a short dance film exploring the concepts of reality and perception. The film follows two women who are stuck in man-made, monochrome boxes, searching for meaning in the confines of their prescribed spaces.

Inner Bloom (2021, Florida Premiere)
Chor. Stephanie D. Handjiiska, Dir. Kosta Karakashyan
A young female protagonist unexpectedly encounters her own sexuality, and passes through stages of unrestrained pleasure, shame, purification, and acceptance of her own female divinity.

Face the Fear (2021, World Premiere)
Chor. Michelle Stone, Dir. Claudia Calle
This is a dance performance dedicated to one of the most obstructing feelings in life, “Fear.” The action to face it and dance it out will bring liberation, feelings of freedom, and powerful self-awareness.

Bronx Magic (2022, Florida Premiere)
Chor. & Dir. Marta Renzi
The everyday magic of dance is everywhere in a Bronx neighborhood. Near the ice cream truck, under the elevated train, and at the subway station, everybody becomes part of the daily dance.

Q&A to follow the program.

ScreenDance Miami 2023 is funded by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; the National Endowment for the Arts; the City of Miami Beach Department of Tourism and Cultural Development, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council and the Miami Beach Mayor and City Commissioners; and TD Charitable Foundation.