MOVE US

This Year Presents

13 FILMS

11 COUNTRIES

1 WORKSHOP AND 2 PANEL DISCUSSIONS

OFFERED BY BRILLIANT

Filmmakers

Scholars

Dancers

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH FESTIVAL DU COURT-MÉTRAGE DE CLERMONT-FERRAND

Ch o re o Da nc e Film Festival (CDFF) Founded in 2022, CDFF is the first global platform for dance film organized by Choreomundus Alumni, dedicated to cultivating a new generation of empowered dance filmmakers with a background in dance research.

With generous support from the European Union through the Erasmus+ Student and Alumni Alliance (ESAA), CDFF centers the 2022 theme on The Crises That Move Us to invite a rethinking of the socio-political relations between dance and the environment, and perhaps a re-elaboration of the term environment itself. Through a firm belief in diversity, equity, and inclusion, CDFF embraces the challenge to open the platform for unseen bodies and unheard voices—dancing and telling stories about the change they want to be in these unprecedented times we live in.

to Professor ANDRÉE GRAU

(1954 – 2017)

Ch o re o Da nc e Film Festival (CDFF) promotes the diversity of dance cultures through film and media, assembling an encounter of aesthetic proposals encompassing a wide array of skills, perspectives and knowledge. We aim to bridge the gap between dance and film while opening an innovative space to promote Dance as Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). This year, we bring together communities from all over the world with a special focus on those whose living environment has been threatened by the climate change crisis humanity is experiencing.

Two years ago, a student asked me for my best advice about living in the present moment. The pandemic has made me realize that we live for one another. The best way you can feel that you are alive and useful is to help somebody. In return, one has to accept help from others whenever offered because it is also a way of letting other people stay alive, letting other people feel that they still live.

The spirit of lending a helping hand, of working together, of collaborating is truly flourishing in this year’s reunion of Choreomundus alumni, faculty, and staff. Who would have thought that a graduate programme on dance heritage would celebrate its tenth anniversary after its establishment in 2012. With my fellow conveners, the late Andrée Grau, Georgiana Gore, and László Felföldi, I believe that dancing gives a safe way of being around people, of interacting socially, of experiencing flow and excitement, a feeling that our whole being is moved.

And so, I am very pleased to welcome you to experience the flow and let the excitement linger throughout the three-night film festival that our hardworking Choreomundus alumni have prepared for us! While we screen the films, let the Choreo Dance Film Festival serve as a reminder that learning about dance is one way of recognizing the value of dance for the community. I hope that these dance films will also communicate the equal value of all human beings and their cultures.

Professor Emeritus, Department of Music

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

First coordinating Convener of Choreomundus

Dear Choreomundus family and dance-film lovers,

We would like to extend our warmest welcome for you to join us for the first Choreo Dance Film Festival in Clermont-Ferrand, France this year!

You will find in this program the assemblage of global teams that make up this festival: The organizing committee, the external jury, the program schedule and the official selection for CDFF 2022 featuring directors, producers, choreographers and dancers from all over the world.

As directors of CDFF, we cannot overstate how proud we are to produce this festival that is born out of a pandemic crisis. Despite the challenges of isolation, CDFF has brought our organizing committee closer together across time zones and cohorts. We have worked tirelessly for eight months with international alumni, guiding current students and recent graduates in a mentorship scheme built upon the goal of passing on the baton in two years’ time for the continuation of the Festival.

Thirteen films produced or directed by Choreomundus alumni have been carefully chosen as CDFF 2022 Official selection. The CDFF Grand Jury Award Film was selected in consultancy with an external jury team consisting of four established dance filmmakers from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

On behalf of the Choreo Dance Film Festival, we invite you to come and join us in-person and online.

Shanny Rann Festival Director

Pamela Santana Festival Co-Director

Davi Kopenawa Yanomani, shaman and leader of the Yanomani indigenous tribe of , as a term, is not ours. He suggests thinking of the environment as a whole, as nature, as ecology and not in separate parts - “We defend the forest’s trees, hills, mountains, and rivers; its fish, game, spirits, and human In current times of radical uncertainty, emergent crises and chaos, we have sought for ways to enliven our spirit of experimentation. The word ‘environment’ brings memories and associations to our localised socio-political situation, culture and people within our bodies. As artists and scholars, we inquire on the understanding of the word environment inviting multiple lenses to engage in mutual interconnectedness.

For our first edition, we have centered the theme around the environmental crisis, inviting a rethinking of the relations among politics and the environment, as well as re-elaboration of the term environment itself. Therefore, we have challenged the participants of these films to relate to embodiedness as a possibility to address/represent/inquire on such crises ‘staying in the trouble’ as Donna Haraway states.

We are asking how can dance be environmental and, therefore, political? How can the form of the environment inform the shape of dance as we practice it? How can we create a dialogue between body, land, trees, and cultural memories? How can we contextualise experiment environmentally, or environment experimentally? How can we get a transcendental experience of the realm of dance and film together, encompassing the violence, migrations and precariousness of life from the viewpoint of embodied