Dance Camera West Announces 11th Annual
Dance Media Film Festival
At LACMA & The Hammer Museum
Los Angeles – June 28-30, 2012

LOS ANGELES, CA – June 11, 2012 – Dance Camera West (DCW), recognized internationally for its annual presentation and celebration of dance on screen, announces its 11th annual Dance Camera West Dance Media Film Festival.  This year’s festival takes place at high profile Los Angeles venues including LACMA and The Hammer Museum, from Thursday, June 28 to Saturday, June 30, 2012.  The festival will feature 20 films in four screenings over three days representing work from Italy, France, the UK, Canada, Sweden, France and the US.  Please visit DCW’s website for continuous updates at www.dancecamerawest.org.

On Friday, June 22nd, as a pre-festival event in association with Los Angeles Film Festival and Grand Performances, a Dirty Dancing Dance-A-Long will be held in California Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles.  Next, as the official festival kicks-off at LACMA on Thursday, June 28th, the opening night program will feature DCW’s highly anticipated screendance shorts program. Continuing at LACMA, the Friday, June 29th program features an afternoon of longer shorts with filmmaker discussions followed by a tribute to Soul Train with special guests.  The festival closes on Saturday, June 30th with a documentary program at The Hammer Museum and a panel discussion at the Westwood Library.

This year’s festival marks its first year under the leadership of newly appointed Executive Director Tonia Barber.  Dance Camera West’s Founder and Emeritus Director Lynette Kessler stepped down in January 2012 to take on new challenges after leading the organization through its first decade.  During her years at the helm of DCW, in collaboration initially with Co-Founder Kelly Hargraves, Kessler brought work from around the world to audiences throughout Los Angeles with special event screenings at The Getty Center, The Hammer Museum, the Autry National Center, Roy and Edna Disney Cal Arts Theater (REDCAT), and more.

“While this year’s festival marks a brand new decade for Dance Camera West and an influx of new energy,” says DCW Executive Director Tonia Barber, “Our mission remains the same – to serve as a catalyst for the art of dance in Southern California and beyond through the festival’s exploration of dance on screen.”

Festival Highlights –
Dance Camera West’s 11th annual Dance Media Film Festival opens at LACMA with the screening of its highly anticipated international screendance shorts program, which will include special guests, on Thursday, June 28, 2012. The next day, Friday, June 29th, also at LACMA, DCW pays tribute to Soul Train with a screening of the 64-minute documentary Soul Train: The Hippest Trip In America with special guests, as well as a longer shorts program.  The festival closes on Saturday, June 30, 2012 with a panel discussion that explores the immediacy and impact of dance on popular culture at the Westwood Library and the 80-minute Wayne McGregor documentary Going Somewhere.  All screenings and discussions are free and open to the public.

DCW 11th Festival Schedule –

• Thu. June 28 –
DCW Festival Opening Night in Association with Film Independent:
– DCW’s highly anticipated screendance shorts program officially kicks off the festival with films from Italy, France, the UK, Canada, Sweden, France and the US
– Post-screening panel Q&A moderated by Film Independent Curator Elvis Mitchell
 – Special guest speakers TBA
– 7:00pm
– No host drinks and discussion after screening at the Stark Bar
– FREEFilms scheduled to screen on 6/28/12:
– “Chant et Fugue” (2012 / USA / 3:24 / World Premiere) by Martin & Facundo Lombard – a dance scene created and performed by the Lombard Twins in New York
– “Falling” (2011 / UK-ITALY / 3:37) by Adriano Circulli – a study of human interaction, expressed through movement and sound
– “Origami” (2011 / USA / 3:27) by RJ Muna/Katherine Fisher & Jaime Verazin – a study of movement based on symmetry of folding and unfolding
– “Gravity of Center” (2010 / CANADA / 14:16 / World Premiere) by Thibaut Duverneix/Victor Quijada – follow this wolf pack across remote landscapes as the need for individualism is suffocated by their dependence on the group
– “Painted” (2011 / CANADA / 4:08 / US Premiere) by Duncan McDowell/Dorotea Saykaly – a visual and choreographic explanation of a building’s decay, and nature’s advance
– “Into Minds” (2011 / UK / 5:00 / West Coast Premiere) by Azul Serra/Irineu Nogueira – mixing brilliant slam poetry with dance and music in an abandoned factory in London
– “Outside In” (2011 / SWEDEN / 10:00 / West Coast Premiere/ Screened at Cannes Film Festival) by Petrus Sjovik & Tove Skeidsvoll – Cecilia moves in front of a film crew who direct her movements. Eventually Cecilia has it and decides to go her own way.
– “Partita for Violin” (2011 / USA / 3:49) by Benjamin Millepied – Dancer Craig Black writhes his way through a period apartment in upstate New York’s Mount Krisco. Score by Phillip Glass.
– “MOVE” (2011 / FRANCE / 5:01) by Dominique Palombo/Jermaine Browne – Fashion film for the 2011 Rachel Roy collection using different styles of dance to show clothes at their best, as they are worn.
LACMA – Los Angeles County Museum of Art – 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 (323-857-6010; http://www.lacma.org)

• Fri. June 29 –

Daytime Program:
– International collection of longer dance shorts (30-40 minute films) from the US, Sweden and Canada
– Filmmakers discussion
– 2:00 – 4:00pm
– FREE

Films scheduled to screen 2:00 – 4:00pm on 6/29/12:

Two student films start the program:
– “We Three” (2012 / USA / 2:23) by Anna Vomacka – Winner of the 2012 Capturing Motion NYC youth film competition.  Abstract piece with one dancer completing a dance sequence in three locations.
– DCW’s 2012 Pro Motion Youth award winner – This winner of DCW’s student film competition will be announced in Los Angeles on June 15, 2012.

– “Black Train is Coming” (2011 / USA / 3:00) by John T. Williams/Eninja & Joyntz Scott – based on the 1926 sermon “Death’s Black Train is Coming” by Rev. J.M. Gates, one of the United States’ most prolific black preachers
– “Contact” (2012 / USA / 3:15 / World Premiere) by Mitchell Rose/Jamey Hampton & Ashley Roland – a dancer is confronted by an onslaught of attackers, illustrating that our days are battles, from which we find respite in human contact
– “Labyrinth Within” (2010 / SWEDEN / 29:00) by Pontus Lidberg – a haunting take on jealousy, this existential thriller posits a man, a woman, and an elusive lover in a series of intense pas de deux in a stark apartment
– “The (818) Session” (2011 / USA / 15:44 / World Premiere) by Jessica Koslow & Tshego Letsoalo – this documentary tells the story of a krump dancing circle that occurs every Wednesday at midnight, in a North Hollywood parking lot
– “ORA” (2011 / CANADA / 15:41) by Phillippe Baylaucq/Jose Navas – Six dancers with luminous bodies set off to discover their world. A unique sensory experience using cutting-edge 3D thermal imaging technology.
– “Fanfare For Marching Band” (2011 / USA / 16:00) by Daniele Wilmouth/Peter Carpenter – follow the antics of a ragtag musical militia as they embark on an impotent invasion though a parallel universe where their exuberant music is out of sync and unheard

Evening Program:
– Tribute to Soul Train with screening of Soul Train: The Hippest Trip In America (2011 / USA / 64:00) by J. Kevin Swain, followed by interviews with original Soul Train dancers including Damita Jo Freeman, Nieci Payne and Lula Washington, and a live Soul Train party. Hosted by Elvis Mitchell.
– Preceded by short film – “Manoeuvres” by (2011 / FRANCE / 2:45) by Dominique Palombo
 – 7:00pm
– FREE

LACMA – Los Angeles County Museum of Art – 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 (323-857-6010; http://www.lacma.org)

• Sat. June 30 –

Daytime Panel Discussion:
– 3:00 – 5:00pm
– FREE

IMPACT! 
This panel discussion will explore the immediacy and impact of dance on popular culture. The focus will be on dance in all its current manifestations: YouTube, international dance shorts, fashion, live performance, commercials, television, and features – investigating how the media has popularized, made accessible, and continues to shape its approach to and integration of dance. The panel will include a list of internationally renowned directors, choreographers, agents, and more.

Westwood Library – 1246 Glendon Avenue Los Angeles CA 90024 (310-474-1739; http://www.lapl.org/branches/Branch.php?bID=71) – one block from the Hammer Museum

Closing Night:
– Going Somewhere (2011 / FRANCE / 80′) – a creative documentary about Wayne McGregor by Catherine Maximoff – Wayne McGregor is a multi-award winning British choreographer, renowned for his physically challenging choreography and ground-breaking collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science.
– 7:30pm
– FREE

The Hammer Museum – 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024 (310-443-7000; http://hammer.ucla.edu)

Dance Media –
Dance on screen, or “screendance,” is a unique cinematic experience that focuses on the intersection of cinematography and choreography.  The festival includes this as well as all forms of dance media.  The hybrid screendance medium is diverse, encompassing a broad range of cinematography styles, exhibition formats, and subject matter traversing global perspectives.  The festival includes everything from experimental shorts to documentaries – ranging from surreal visual abstractions to strict narratives.

Tonia Barber, DCW Executive Director –
Tonia Barber is an independent producer who formed a New York-based entertainment company in 1998 called POP.403.  The company first invested in Tumbleweeds, which was released worldwide by New Line after competing at Sundance in 1999. The next year, Barber produced Interstate 84, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was sold worldwide.  Barber then executive produced the racecar indie, QuattroNoza, which was in competition at Sundance in 2003 and won “Best Cinematography.”  After moving to Los Angeles in 2003, Barber wrote, directed and produced the short film RAW that premiered at Sundance 2005 and screened at the AFI FEST 2005.

Barber started her career as a dancer with the Joffrey Ballet in New York City and continued on to the Broadway stage.  Her credits include 42nd Street and she was an original cast member in Tommy Tune’s nine-time Tony winner The Will Rogers Follies.  She has also staged and choreographed numerous plays, commercials and industrials.

Dance Camera West –
Dance Camera West is a nonprofit organization committed to fostering and promoting the vibrant art of dance media from around the world.  Founded in 2001, DCW connects diverse cultures and environments through its exploration of dance on screen, bringing challenging and provocative films to Los Angeles from around the globe, effectively bridging the gap between the uniquely influential Los Angeles film community and the significant local dance populace.  The organization is unique in its artistic purpose, as no other organization in Los Angeles offers audience exposure to such a diverse range of work by international dance companies.

DCW strives to create a broader and more engaged audience for dance and dance media by merging both performance and cinematic aesthetics.  DCW is one of only a handful of organizations in the world that present the thought-provoking adventure of dance media.  Known as one of the world’s premiere presenters of dance media, Dance Camera West aspires to awaken and infuse the public mainstream with critical creative programming.  DCW has expanded the audience for dance in Southern California with the presentation of more than 1,000 dance films from 51 countries since its inception.

Annual DCW dance media events have been extremely well received by local and national media. The Los Angeles Times has twice named the festival “Best of LA.”  Los Angeles Magazine selected the festival as its “Pick of the Month,” and Angeleno included the festival in its “Top Ten List” in 2010.  DCW was also voted one of the “Top 25 Dance Organizations to Watch” by Dance Magazine in 2005 and 2006 and FOX News has aired several three-minute features on the festival over the years.  Publicity also flows from influential online outlets such as The Huffington Post, which ran a full review of the festival in June 2010, and flavorpill, which selected the festival as its “Hot Tip” of the week for several years. Additional press coverage is available at: dancecamerawest.org/press_archives.htm.

This year’s 2012 Dance Camera West festival is supported in part by the Metabolic Studio / a direct charitable activity of the Annenberg Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Matthew Diamond, Penney Finkelman Cox, Julia Harris, Amy Spitznagel, Hebe Tabachnik, and Paula Walker.

Links –
– DCW Site – http://www.dancecamerawest.org
– Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/DanceCameraWestFilmFest
– Twitter – http://twitter.com/#!/dancecamerawest
– YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/dancecamerawestfest
– Image Gallery – http://gallery.me.com/lynnhasty#100301

For more information, press passes, photos, or to interview DCW’s Executive Director Tonia Barber, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

“Falling” still courtesy Adriano Circulli