Dance Films: Bodyspace

Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

This year's dance films selection offers 13 films, and unlike previous years, that’s a lot, plus they really are short. These bite-sized (in the best way possible) films are, on average, 4 minutes and 8 seconds long, allowing us to bring more films to the viewers, and together they form a versatile mix. Topic-wise, we don’t set any intellectual limitations, and we let the viewers interpret the films any way they like. The selected films are aware of the space where the body exists, but also of the body’s own space, which means you’ll see both aesthetic environment and enjoyable movement. The viewers can also move between different levels – from bodies to spaces, from spaces to spaces between bodies, from there to spaces between spaces, from spaces to sounds, and from sounds back to yourself.

Screenings

Hall 2 Kino Artis
Screening102202 / Tantsufilmid: keharuum
Q&A duration
Screening duration
Hall 2 Kino Artis
Screening132205 / Tantsufilmid: keharuum
Screening duration

Films

YES!

Local title
JAH!
Original title
YES!
Director
Madli Lääne
Country
Estonia
Year
2024
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

The corners, slopes, dead ends, and curves of the Tallinn Cruise Terminal prompted us to ponder the dilemmas of the achievement society. Should we push ourselves into a box, or should we dare to be wrong?

Director
Madli Lääne
Runtime
Language
Estonian
Subtitles
English

Baltic premiere

Sea Fragment

Local title
Merefragment
Original title
Sea Fragment
Director
Laure Delamotte-Legrand
Country
France
Year
2024
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

The choice of the filming site was guided more by its location and function than by the architecture of the pool and its surroundings. The building is designed to be naturally and regularly flooded by the Atlantic Ocean tides. The film incorporates natural elements and the aim of the author is to depict a harmony between the body, the site's architecture, and the powerful nature of the location.

Director
Laure Delamotte-Legrand
Runtime
Language
no dialogue

World premiere

A Flower's Journey

Local title
Lille teekond
Original title
A Flower's Journey
Director
Ilanna Barkusky
Country
USA
Year
2024
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

Celebrating a flower's journey from seed to full bloom, and exploring these parallels of personal growth through movement.

Director
Ilanna Barkusky
Runtime
Language
English

Baltic premiere

Immortals

Local title
Surematud
Original title
Immortelles
Director
Mark Durand
Country
Canada
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

An experimental documentary short film shot in 8mm that explores the introspection of an artist, Bettina Szabo. The film delves into her relationship with her sense of belonging, her body, her imagination, and nature. Sometimes one must lose oneself to find oneself better, and burn everything down to start anew on a solid foundation.

Director
Mark Durand
Runtime
Language
French
Subtitles
English

Baltic premiere

In Between

Local title
Vahel
Director
Lina Lužytė
Country
Estonia
Year
2024
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives
Genre
war film
Subject
children

Built in an old forest by the sea, Arvo Pärt Centre creates a sensation of being both inside and outside at the same time: the building’s transparent glass walls make it seem almost non-existent. This concept is also the main idea of the film shot in this centre: it is hard to say whether the dancer is inside or outside, whether it is her dancing or rather the nature moving around, and, last but not least, whether the architectural structure exists or is barely a dream or an illusion.

Director
Lina Lužytė
Runtime
Language
no dialogue

Baltic premiere

Shake Stew - Lila

Local title
Shake Stew - Lila
Original title
Shake Stew - Lila
Director
Rupert Höller
Country
Austria
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

In a surreal dance video, a dancer is melting into a landscape of palm trees, rocks and ocean waves.

Director
Rupert Höller
Runtime
Language
no dialogue

Baltic premiere

Physical Culture

Local title
Kehakultuur
Original title
Physical Culture
Director
Anna Bogomolova
Country
Netherlands
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

Your body is your own private culture. Everything you have ever experienced is stored inside the body. You are an archive, a conduit of experience and change. Embracing that change with empathy is what makes us human.

Director
Anna Bogomolova
Runtime
Language
English

World premiere

Drama King

Local title
Draamakuningas
Original title
Drama King
Director
Valerijs Olehno
Country
Latvia
Year
2024
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

At night, a middle-aged janitor transforms the silent halls of a theatre building into his own personal stage, with only one audience: the watchful security guard.

Director
Valerijs Olehno
Runtime
Language
no dialogue

World premiere

H61

Local title
H61
Original title
H61
Director
Ruta Ronja Pakalne
Country
Latvia
Year
2024
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

In a world that has changed, a creature longs to merge with the environment that was once familiar, searching for a deeper sense of belonging. Through the fluidity of movement, the austerity of architecture and the power of sound and image, the film unfolds as a visual poem - both apocalyptic and hopeful.

Director
Ruta Ronja Pakalne
Runtime
Language
no dialogue

Baltic premiere

SOLO

Local title
Üksi
Original title
SOLO
Director
Kateryna Gornostai
Country
Lithuania
Year
2024
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

The Ukrainian dancer Mariia Yakobchuk (based in Berlin) and the Ukrainian director Kateryna Gornostai (based in Kyiv) chose this place for their project intentionally. The Vilnius Palace of Marriage, opened in 1974, is highly reminiscent of Soviet-era modernist architecture in Ukraine. Mariia’s dance represents her emerging womanhood in a space traditionally meant for the initiation ritual of two people.

Director
Kateryna Gornostai
Runtime
Language
no dialogue

Heartache

Local title
Südamevalu
Original title
Heartache
Director
Iker Karrera
Country
Spain
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

The film deploys tensely expressive movement in a darkly playful take on the dynamics of seeing and being seen. Dark humor, sarcastic imagery and expressive choreography conveyed a unique atmosphere to color the interactions between the dancers and their setting.

Director
Iker Karrera
Runtime
Language
English

Circus of Love and Lament

Local title
Armastuse ja leina tsirkus
Original title
Circus of Love and Lament
Director
Marta Pulk
Country
Latvia
Year
2024
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

The Riga Circus Arena becomes a living, breathing entity, echoing the joys and sorrows of a love that is at once fragile and fierce. Each movement, each gaze, each touch within the arena's historic walls symbolises the raw, unspoken dialogue between two souls. Through the synthesis of choreography and architecture, we explore how love, much like a circus, is a symphony of chaos and beauty, where harmony and discord coexist in a delicate, breathtaking balance.

Director
Marta Pulk
Runtime
Language
no dialogue

Circle

Local title
Ring
Original title
Circle
Director
Phillip Kaminiak
Country
USA
Year
2022
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2024
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

An analogy between the modern human being, living in mass cities, and the phenomenon of the circle of death - observed in nature with ants.

Director
Phillip Kaminiak
Runtime
Language
English
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