Care to Dance ... Come to Southside Film Festival

In recent blogs I've hinted at some of the great films I've been screening in preparation for our annual SouthSide Film Festival. It's my job and I take quite seriously. Yes, I do travel to various Film Fests, screening films while looking for some films for "invitation" to my Fest. But in addition, we are always seeking out the best representation of our annually changing Genre and Cultural Focuses. To that end, myself and a select handful of Board and Jury members attempt to compile a "wish list" of films related to our focuses. This is always the "adventure".

So I crank up my Netflix Queue and stack it full of films fitting these focuses. And the fun begins... week after week I screen these potential invitationals, all while still in the thick of the Jury Process with our film submissions. It's double duty, alot of late night screenings, screenings at every spare moment, and still more screenings. But it's all for the cause. So let me tease you with some of the Invitationals that you can see at our SouthSide Film Festival, June 19-23. Here's a bit of a tease.

The biggest treasure at this year's fest IS our inclusion of these focuses, and South American Culture and Dance in Film have truly offered some great surprises. I must say that for me the annual focuses help me gain an exposure to a possibly unknown or misunderstood Cultural region of the World or a Genre of Filmmaking less familiar to me and our audiences. And that in itself is why we do the annually changing focuses at SouthSide. Care to Dance...?

Let's chat about one of my favorite finds for this year's Festival, a wonderful collection of Dance Films, "Dance For Camera". This collection highlights a few selections from Dance Camera West Film Festival, a part of NYC's Dance Films Association. This wonderful DVD, available to the general public on Amazon or DFA's website, is chock full of unique, eye-opening films fitting our Genre Focus of "Dance on Film".



The collection kicks off with "Reines d'un Jour" ("Queen for a Day"), from director Pascal Magnin. Director Magnin seems to be a master of Dance on Film and has an incredible eye for choreography and movement, and has created a wonderland of visual candy. Dancers playfully roll down hills, encounter hillside villagers, and interplay with their environment, all to the guise of a local legend. "Measure", by 33 Fainting Steps, is a light-hearted playground of dancers interacting with doorways hallways. Annick Vroom's "Rest in Peace" depicts the strife, agony, triumph, and hidden secrets of a family in mourning. Yes at times it seems a bit too lyrical and "dancey", but it too is playful at times, with strong dancing and a tongue-in cheek humor.

"A Village Trilogy", by Laura Taler, is the weakest of this collection, but by no means is it a "dud". The storyline not as strong as some others in this collection, but still a fine representation of "Dance On Camera". "Cornered", from director Michael Downing, blends stark sets, strong movement, and a seemingly gravity-defying camera. Moving from side to side, with constant change in camera perspective and subject position, at times this film has the viewer questioning which way is up? Which in itself adds to the play on words with the title "Cornered", slang for "not knowing which way is up". The collection ends with another Pascal Magnin bookmark: "Contrecoup". As stated earlier, Magnin proves a mastery with capturing dance movement and choreography. This was my favorite film, highlighting vignettes of separate lives, all tied together with movement and incredible set design. The dancers are expressive and portray emotion through movement. This film is like watching a classic European film, with all its detail and starkness. WOW!And I won't even give away the punchline.

I have SOO many more films to highlight, and could probably blog non-stop for weeks regarding this screening process and what happens as we create our annual Film Festival. That's all for another day, a sleepless night, or when I need to "vent". Bottom line folks... all these dance films and South American films can be screened at this year's SouthSide Film Festival, June 19-23, here in Bethlehem, PA.

Get off the couch, get out, and enjoy our Fest, or if you must stay home... at least consider viewing some QUALITY films, not the standard "video store" fare. There is some great filmmaking out there, and it can be found as close as your back yard or half a World away. There are talented filmmakers EVERYWHERE, and many of them never gain the exposure they deserve, only because they don't have the money machine of Hollywood backing the. And THAT'S another reason we present our SouthSide Film Festival. Hope to see you there.

Until then... butter up that popcorn, turn down the lights, and crank up that projector.


en filme... jeff