CONSTRUCTED SIGHT DANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2022
WHAT CAN I EXPECT?
By purchasing any of our tickets you automatically have access (beginning March 11) to 50 International dance films. You will receive an email with link and password to the Constructed Sight Dance Film Festival playlist via Vimeo. Browse at your leisure to view any of the films until March 20!
WHAT IS THE OPENING NIGHT EVENT?
Join us either in-person or online on Friday, March 11 at 7:30pm for our Opening Night Event! Online Festival Passes will be sent a link to the live streamed event where you can join in and chat with us! In-person ticket option will have its own separate email with details.
WHAT IS THE VOTER'S CHOICE?
We are seeking YOUR VOTES! Please cast your vote by "liking" the video (the little heart at the top right of the screen) OR posting a comment! You can vote for up to three films. Three artists will be awarded a cash prize based on ticket sales.
HOW ARE THE FILMS LISTED?
The films will be alphabetically listed with the Panelist Picks at the top of the playlist, followed by an alphabetical listing of the general festival artists, and the Emerging Category. In each video description we have listed: Region/Location of creator, Time of film, Description of film, Bio or Artist statement, Social media handles. Please like/follow your favorite artists and keep up to date with them!
By purchasing any of our tickets you automatically have access (beginning March 11) to 50 International dance films. You will receive an email with link and password to the Constructed Sight Dance Film Festival playlist via Vimeo. Browse at your leisure to view any of the films until March 20!
WHAT IS THE OPENING NIGHT EVENT?
Join us either in-person or online on Friday, March 11 at 7:30pm for our Opening Night Event! Online Festival Passes will be sent a link to the live streamed event where you can join in and chat with us! In-person ticket option will have its own separate email with details.
WHAT IS THE VOTER'S CHOICE?
We are seeking YOUR VOTES! Please cast your vote by "liking" the video (the little heart at the top right of the screen) OR posting a comment! You can vote for up to three films. Three artists will be awarded a cash prize based on ticket sales.
HOW ARE THE FILMS LISTED?
The films will be alphabetically listed with the Panelist Picks at the top of the playlist, followed by an alphabetical listing of the general festival artists, and the Emerging Category. In each video description we have listed: Region/Location of creator, Time of film, Description of film, Bio or Artist statement, Social media handles. Please like/follow your favorite artists and keep up to date with them!
FILM DESCRIPTION PROGRAM:
(full program info: run time, artist bio, social media handles listed on the Vimeo Playlist description)
PANELIST PICKS
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ALTERED LINKS
Germany Artist: Edoardo Cino ALTERED LINKS a dance short film Recorded during spring and summer 2020, "Altered Links" comes from some outside dance meeting about making art in the current situation of lockdown and disconnection. In each meeting we found a different way of coping with the social task of avoiding physical contact but still keeping some kind of link among our bodies. |
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Godlin
Montreal, Quebec, Canada Artist: Jontae McCrory Cross pollinating between the world of dream and reality, accompanied by the “Mirror Holders”, two men attempt to re-imagine and escape their traumas. Two origins bound to a repeating end in history. |
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G Y P S U M
Pennsylvania/New York, USA Artist: Jessy Dae Crist/Ryan M. Robson G Y P S U M explores the relationship between the physical space trauma takes up in the body, paralleled with environmental consequences due to natural trauma. G Y P S U M compares the body to the earth, following the "after" of a traumatic event. How does one go on after the event has occurred? How to remember, forget, grieve, and make peace? How does one reconnect to a body that no longer feels the same. A portrait of remembrance, loss, anger, wildness, and acceptance. |
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HOME
New York City, USA Artist: Christian Warner "HOME," Warner's short film debut, was commissioned as an opening act to Jeremy McQueen's Black Iris Project AMP Initiative to amplify emerging Black choreographic voices. in "HOME," Warner explores ideas surrounding shadow work in a healing body; featuring performances by Christian Warner and Claude Johnson and an original score by Haider Mir (For Rosa, HBO). |
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I Am The Other
Argentina Artist: Lucio A Baglivo - LAB Project Using as reference the phrase by Arthur Rimbaud, “Je est un autre” (I am another) and the traditional Mayan greeting: “In lak'ech: I am another you” to which the other responds “Hala ken: You are another me "; I was interested in investigating the idea of the reflection in / of the other, of another man in front of me, what that other returns to me and how my identity moves in relation to this encounter. |
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One Night
Kent, England Artist: Chevon Edwards + Isla Badenoch Based on true events, One Night is a a physical tale of awakening, overwhelm and release. Through dance, a young woman explores her inner turmoil after realising the reality of being a victim of domestic abuse. |
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Out of the Folds of Women
New York City, USA Artist: Anabella Lenzu "Out of the Folds of Women" tells a personal vision of femininity, and what it means to be a woman, mother and immigrant today. “Unfolded out of the folds of the woman Man comes unfolded, And is always to come unfolded" -Walt Whitman |
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Remember Nature
Belgian/Switzerland Artist: Ana Van Tendeloo Remember Nature’ is an apocalyptic image of a possible future in which we lost nature and therefore the ability to connect to one another, to the whole. |
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S-end
Barcelona, Spain Artist: Carlos Saor/Tanit Cobas/Marta Santacatalina An isolated place where a woman sends, awaits and recieves within a distance. One body, two monologues that coexist in symbiosis. |
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SHIFTING TOOLS
Italy Artist: Francesca Santamaria/Mattia Cursi/Juan Claudio Averoff Rico (music composer) A moving body is a perfect machine where all its elements operate a continuous game of shift, replacements and variations. Music writes (gives) the rules of the game. A camera becomes the player who combines and manages the infinite possibilities that are revealed from multiple perspectives. Who is the conductor of this orchestra? |
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The Man Who Traveled Nowhere In Time
Montreal, Canada Artist: Trip The Light Fantastic/Kyra Green Through the eyes of Eytan, a man who only exists in the dreams and unconscious minds of others, we question what is “real”, what isn't, and how we each perceive time differently. |
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The One I Keep
Boston, MA & Princeton, NJ, USA Artist: Merli V. Guerra, Luminarium Dance Company Played in reverse, Guerra's film "The One I Keep" questions the secrets we withhold versus the multitude we share, and is told through the eyes of a solo performer caught in the turbulence of thousands of flying paper notes. |
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TOUCH
Montreal, Canada Artist: Trip The Light Fantastic/Kyra Green TOUCH takes place in an imagined future: in this future, humans have been living without physical contact for a very long time, for unmentioned reasons. We witness our characters interact with a mechanically simple device in a large, private space in order to experience the touch of another human being, for the first time in the new physically distant |
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Unisono
Finland Artist: Vilma Tihilä/Sami Hokkanen Unisono is a physical comedy of finding and accepting oneself. |
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VARIEDADES
Panama City, Panama Artist: Fundacion Espacio Creativo / Marlyn Attie Five bodies explore the debris of an abandoned early 20th century Theater in the heart of Latin America. The Variedades Theater, once a cultural gem now lives in disguise in front of the busiest street of Panama City. It was once meant for prestigious live performance, and as decades flew by it became a cinema, later a porn cinema, until its oblivion. Few locals know of its history and current state, but choreographer Marlyn Attie’s curiosity brought her to rediscover the unusual spaces of this theater with her dancers and collaborators. Join us on revisiting the magic of a theater’s essence through movement and cinematic nostalgia. |
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WHIRLING LADDER I BETWEEN
Germany Artist: YIBU DANCE A screendance, created by choreographer, dancer Chun Zhang and Kai Strathmann, with videographer Maurits Boettger. WHIRLING LADDER | BETWEEN is a dance production from YIBU DANCE. It not only shows the compelling interaction of human bodies, but also the indissoluble connection between body and space-time and ultimately between dance and viewer, by interweaving the principles of Chinese martial art--Wing Chun and the geometry of DNA base pairs with artistic precision. The movie captures the details of this stage performance with taste and excitement, showing its own character and statement in a clear and minimalist way. |
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Yel
Armenia Artist: Rima Pipoyan The "YEL" short dance film is about the struggle of polarities inside a human being and about the reaction she or he may have when faced with all the contrasts of the outer world. And only self-overcoming can give a human being the feeling of victory. |
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Zoom In Between
Tel-Aviv, Israel Artist: Nirit Rechavi Conversations of body parts in a "Zoomy" space, created originally via a self-conversation in the Zoom app. What kind of connections and relationships are established within the body? Who are we becoming in the virtual space? Exploring the disassembly, connection and re-assembly of body parts, reshaping the frame and the inner connection within our body and our screen-space and arising questions about the present of our body. |
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+972
Israel Artist: Dana Ruttenberg Dana lives in Tel Aviv. Netta lives in New York City, but spent the fall months in Tel Aviv. Dana and Netta make dances. They were once girls. Now they are women in their 40s. Dana and Netta don’t really truly know each other and have never worked together. They gathered, by ADF’s invitation, to create a digital art object. This “blind date” was captured and journaled, in video and sound, in English and in Hebrew. +972 is the result of talking and moving, of yawning and fumbling, of staring at walls, at the sea, and at one another. As the dance world was coming to an existential halt – Dana and Netta created an intimate document, letting the camera catch sight of where they found themselves, and each other, in this wildly delicate moment in time. +972 by Dana Ruttenberg was commissioned and presented by ADF with support from Jewish for Good, Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York, and Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast. |
CONSTRUCTED SIGHT
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As Tension Reaches
Pittsburgh, PA Artist: Shana Simmons As Tension Reaches was inspired by the public work of art, Cloud Arbor, by Ned Kahn. The steel poles reach towards the sky seeming endlessly daunting and constricting. The choreography was created for the structure, fitting in between boundaries and creating tension in the body. Dancers Emily Jaikaran and Allegra Golembiewski improvised throughout the work, interacting in unexpected ways with the camera and each other. Filming, editing, and choreography concepts by Shana Simmons. |
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moat & beam
Pittsburgh, PA Artist: Brady Sanders The weight of judgement can often feel immovable. The title, moat & beam, is intended as a play on words and references the Mote and Beam story, a Christian parable about judging others. |
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Of A Mustard Seed
Pittsburgh, PA Artist: Jamie Erin Murphy Conceived from a dream, “Of A Mustard Seed” is a journey through one's struggle with keeping faith while battling internal demons and the heaviness of the world. As a part of the vision of Constructed Sight, this film features the beautiful architecture of downtown Pittsburgh and highlights the artistry of First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh (one of the oldest Protestant entities west of the Allegheny Mountains). While the structure has gone through many changes, the present building featured in this film was constructed in 1905 in English Gothic Style. |
GENERAL FESTIVAL
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Absence
New York City, USA Artist: Diego Funes In Absence, mind and body are in conflict. A character contemplates the absence of a loved one in analytical detachment, while the body yearns for the physical sensation of being touched, held, cherished. We figure out who we are and how view ourselves based on how we interact with other people. Absence asks who we are when everyday interaction is removed. Created in New York City in response to social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Absence finds its central figure working to offset a present reality where nothing changes until finally being able to hit reset. But even then, can we actually restart, or do we merely adapt to a new reality? And is a new beginning what we really need? |
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Arcadia
Philadelphia, PA, USA Artist: Mignolo Dance Arcadia is a screendance inspired by the Greek god Pan and his homeland, Arcadia. In the film, the dancers embody mythological woodland creatures, and their mix of sprightly and earthy movement is complemented by the jovial chaos of Scotch Club, a neoclassical song by Victor Plumettaz. |
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beyond . still . life
Oakland, California, USA Artist: Hannah Westbrook beyond . still . life is a site-specific dance film created in residence at Art Farm, Nebraska. Inspired by the whimsical landscape, this dance comes to life as a snapshot of magical realism. Immerse yourself in the heavy heat of a midwestern summer and the gentle rhythms of the prairie. |
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Blended Path
Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada Artist: Kylah Powell/CollabArt Creations Organic, trapped, relating, fun... A few sensations that these paintings invoked in this collaboration of dancers/choreographers. |
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Blueprint
Vancouver, Canada Artist: Sarah Hin Ching U "Blueprint” is a short dance film set forth on the company’s “3-part process” theory - videographing, editing, and re-learning the edited body live. In this project, Sarah challenge the idea of reproduction by blurring the lines between the body in real-time and the edited body |
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BONELINE
Bristol, UK Artist: Christopher Lewis-Smith Boneline comments on ageing and how with age comes an increasing awareness of the transient nature of our existence. The film connects the human body, and the earth and stones of a landscape, to suggest an inescapable relationship between the them. |
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by side by
New York, NY, USA Artist: Margaret Wiss & Mike Brun The film entitled by side by, is a visual meditation, a continuum. A work begun March 21, 2020, the movement sequences confront the constants and variables of place and time in film. Wiss’s solitary figure slowly and reverently communing with the ever-changing landscape is complemented by the spare and evocative piano composition of Mike Brun. The repeated ritual, sensual as it is restrained, solitary as it is connected, is a panorama of resilience and hope. |
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Die Hure Babylon - Chapter 4: 2 months after
St. Gallen, Switzerland Artist: Cecilia Wretemark-Hauck/House of Pain - Physical Dance Theatre The film entitled by side by, is a visual meditation, a continuum. A work begun March 21, 2020, the movement sequences confront the constants and variables of place and time in film. Wiss’s solitary figure slowly and reverently communing with the ever-changing landscape is complemented by the spare and evocative piano composition of Mike Brun. The repeated ritual, sensual as it is restrained, solitary as it is connected, is a panorama of resilience and hope. |
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Draft
Italy Artist: Simona Chiusolo/Claudia Toto Draft is a meta-reflective experiment on video dance making. The composition reveals the idea's researching path, the backstage's wrong-doing, the mess due to the distance. When the fourth wall has fallen, the artistic product turns on itself towards a worn-away narration between social and hand-crafted videos. What happens when the research's practice shows itself to the audience? |
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End of the Wall
Tel-Aviv, Israel Artist: Tamar mayzlish/Ataliya baumer End of the Wall is a videodance based on the END OF THE WALL PROJECT which demonstrates two groups of dancers from two different countries -performing and live broadcast simultaneusly in Israel- KELIM center, bat yam and in India, Bangalore- BIC , searching for the best way to communicate and work together despite mental, cultural and physical barriers. |
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Entr'dEux
Montreal, Canada Artist: Claire Campbell/The Bulbe Collective Entr'dEux is based on the theme of communication and miscommunication; how words and actions can be interpreted in different ways, perhaps leaving one feeling heard or feeling ignored. Often in life we must find an "Entre Deux" meaning a compromise, as we cannot fully understand the reality of those around us, or communicate our own. The four characters in the film could be interpreted as one person trying to understand their own thoughts and inner self. It could also speak to the importance of reaching out to our loved ones, and how just a phone call can be enough to let someone know that you care. |
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Erett (Ripe)
Atlanta, Georgia, USA Artist: Hannah Myers/Rebecca Siefert In under a minute she finds herself falling. |
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Escenario
Panama City, Panama Artist: Fundacion Espacio Creativo / Marlyn Attie "ESCENARIO" is a dance film that depicts solitude as art - horrific, yet beautiful. Close to oblivion, yet reborn by the sudden appearance of beating life. Without their presence, an ego-centered mind may go about believing a place is abandoned. But in their absence, a place begins a new cycle of life, it blooms from decay, stronger and wiser. The piece explores the rebirth of an empty theater in the city of Panama, a reflection on the cancellation of the scenic spaces during the pandemic. The Espacio Creativo Foundation and the Ciudad del Saber Foundation, through the Ingenia Fund, with the support of BID LAB, created this piece through a creative residency at the Ateneo de Ciudad del Saber Theater in Panama during December 2020. |
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Frenzy
Los Angeles, California, USA Artist: Volta Collective “Frenzy” is a snapshot into one's internal world. The performers take the viewer along with them as they experience and explore visceral emotional states such as anxiety, rage, and pleasure. Filmed during the pandemic, the film echoes the frustration and chaos of that time as well as the hope and beauty that comes out of connection to each other. "Frenzy" gives the viewer a glimpse into the process of its creation with genuine human reaction and interaction. |
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Green Moves
Bangalore, India Artist: Deepanwita Roy made with Pritha Kundu Green Moves delves into a dream that deals with the dancing body to manifest through montages of movement, nature and the dancer, highlighting our distance and disconnection from the natural world as a species. |
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I had a dream last night
India Artist: Pulkit Sharma This piece is about those who have been dealing with Bipolar disorder and other mental health issues and are not giving up on themselves. |
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Juliet
Los Angeles, California, USA Artist: Marine de Vachon/Contempo Arts Productions Shakespeare's most powerful and classic love story revitalized by a unique vision transforming the witty and timeless romance of Romeo and Juliet into a dark fairy tale exploring the intimate, conflicting and dramatic relationship between them. Setting the story in current times, this version questions what will happen when Romeo and Juliet are not faced with a world of convention and social code, how it will affect their love and the reason for their final destruction. |
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Memory Is A Monster
Columbus, Ohio, USA Artist: Melissa Hinchman/Cultivate Dance Project Born out of quarantine during the pandemic, it is isolation that we are given space and time to reflect. The past, our experiences and the choices that we made that altered us - those memories, whether of dreams or monsters, are given the opportunity to dance around our minds. |
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REwind
Berlin, Germany Artist: Alessia Ruffolo REwind allows a glimpse into the self-aggrandised pain that one can experience whilst dealing with and attempting to understand a personal trauma. Struck with intense sensory flashbacks of a traumatic experience, deeply bewildered with attempting to deal with or understand her pain, a young women's visions begin to tread the line of reality. |
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segnalibro
Pennsylvania, PA, USA Artist: Lydia Ciaffone This exploration of time turned physical all stemmed from memory. I realized my recollection of memories was based on buildings and physical spaces I have been in. While my memories are stored through places, others have an easier time pulling memories based off of people. A realization I am a bookmark for people, a place holder, a reminder of where they are/used to be. An acceptance of my past selves continuing to live on in others. |
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SOLO
Belarus Artist: Uladzimir Slizhyk This film is questioning the notions of empty space, digital body and isolation. [Glitches] caused by system/network errors, which appear in a digital body from time to time, configure a different perception of a body. And it is intriguing to me how that [glitched] visual identity of the moving body on the screen may help to reconfigure kinesthetic empathy of a viewer. |
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Sorry, I Zoned Out
Bath, UK Artist: Divija Melally "Sorry, I Zoned Out", is a film about how we are constantly everywhere except the present. The day dreamers, the worriers, the optimists and the pessimists, all of us try to find a way to escape the reality that surrounds us, especially in these trying times. Does the zoning out bring us solace or make way for greater trepidations? |
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Take Me Into Your Darkest Hour
Singapore Artist: Xenres Kirishima/Kirishima Dance Corps Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, a girl welcomes a stranger into her darkest hour. |
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Tales of a Lost Self
Cyprus Artist: Sarah Dameh/Stella Stylianou The dance film titled "Tales of a Lost Self" explores the collaborative practice between fashion and dance performance. The theme is based on the Japanese subculture “Lolita”. Lolita was introduced in the early 80s and was a movement Japanese women lead in order to go against the dominant social norm, using their own unique style of clothing and social presentation as a form of self-expression. Another concept that further inspired the creation of the character in the dance film created was David Hume’s “Bundle Theory of Self” written in his book “Treatise of Human Nature”(1739), where he explores how a person is made up of several impressions, none of which are the same or homogeneous. Each impression or emotion varies constantly claiming that the creation of self is just an idea as it is ever-changing. The character, just like an idea or thought, keeps transitioning from one situation to the other, smoothly destroying the perception of an identity, making each action spontaneous and seemingly unplanned. |
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The Negro Mother
Phoenix, Arizona & New York, NY, USA Artist: Nicole McClam/Keith A. Thompson / danceTactics performance group THE NEGRO MOTHER was inspired by Nicole McClam & Keith Thompson´s mutual love for the poetry of Langston Hughes, especially his use of syncopated rhythm embedded in his language. How would this interact with the contemporary dance vocabulary they have been collaborating on with danceTactics? How would the images evoked by Hughes´ poem communicate with the movement images within this solo, and vice versa? THE NEGRO MOTHER was created during the coronavirus pandemic, a solo work intended for viewing at home on audience´s personal devices. |
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This is an experiment.
Winsten-Salem, NC, USA Artist: Faith Fidgeon/Jordan Hooks/Gabrielle Walden This project is an iteration of shots taken during a process-based project. Some moments sculpted less than others, but all filmed and edited by cinematographer Gabrielle Walden. This film is a small lens into months of conversation and creation. |
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Untitled
The Netherlands Artist: Romy Reckers This film is created a year ago in my old bedroom durning the corona pandemic. I have felt stuck and one afternoon I intuitively grabbed my camera and decided to make a short dance film. This has shown me how little we need to create if we allow ourselves to be in the moment, without judgment. |
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Warring Depths
Lagos, Nigeria Artist: Oluwaseun Usman This body of work is centred on the themes of Self Awareness, Hope and Mental Awakening, all geared towards humanity and attempts to evoke mental images aimed at describing the complex and relatively terrifying interplay involved in some of such conflicts between one's Self and their Mind. It tries to reenact one of the many struggles against unwanted thoughts, feelings of loss, failure, anxiety, even addictions, that people are affected by everyday and still are too scared to talk about. Ultimately, this film will arouse certain questions in the viewers' subconscious — questions that can only be answered when they are alone with themselves. |
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The outside of the inside loop, we push (but not really)
USA + Italy Artist: Rebecca Broh/Rebecca Romani Conversation and connection. Two bodies moving within the confines of limited direction. Our bodies are not our own, merely tools of communication, so we listen in order to explore a new reality. A new dimension is created by stimulation, reaction, and play. The goal of the conversation is not to reach an end, but to find what lies beyond the words. Listen to what we say and what we do not say, as long as we play. |
EMERGING
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The Other Side
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Artist: Jillian Sinko "The Other Side" is a story of enlightenment, acceptance, healing, and embracing our most vulnerable selves. This piece is a sign for hope to show there is more out there than what you may see right now. There is a beautiful freedom of coming out on the other side of things. |
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Untitled No. 49
Buffalo, New York, USA Artist: Anthony Alterio Untitled, No. 49 is part of an Untitled series of 100 Screendances shot over 5 years. 49 is a look into what happens when vitality meets alluring decay. There is lots to look at it when you focus on more than one thing. 49 will take you on a ride into the past, present, and future. |
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Waves
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Artist: Lexi Troianos I want this film to be open to the audiences interpretation. When I was choreographing, I was really listening to the lyrics. Dean Lewis is describing how life has its highs and lows and it’s never the same and never will be the same. That was my view and interpretation for creating this film but I know each person will take something different from watching. |