Marquee TV, for the second year running, is offering 30 short works on its streaming platform for free during August. Opera, dance, theatre, and music are featured in its Summer Shorts Festival.
Platform Presents, Scottish Ballet, Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, LA Opera, The Washington Ballet, Fly on The Wall and San Francisco Dance Film Festival are among the arts organisations that have collaborated with Marquee to offer this year's summer programme: www.marquee.tv/summer-shorts
Highlights include:
• Platform Presents: Five short films from the 2020 Platform Presents Playwright's Prize, including My Dad's A C**t, Burn, Burning Falling Rising Monster, Is Edward Snowden Single?, and Stripped, starring a diverse range of acting talent including Dianna Agron (Glee), George McKay (Sam Mendes' 1917), and Aimee Lou Wood (BAFTA Winner for Best Female Comedy Performance, Sex Education).
• Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment: Inspired by famous music videos, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment will premiere Handel inspired by Radiohead's No Surprises; Purcell – Dido's Lament inspired by Coldplay's The Scientist; and Purcell – What Power Art Thou inspired by Goyte's Somebody I Used To Know.
● Fly On the Wall: A series of intimate portraits of soloists winding down after performances or just playing for their own pleasure.
● LA Opera: The Five Moons of Lorca, The West is a Land of Infinite Beginnings, Brown Sounds, Death, The Zolle Suite, Gallup and Let Me Come In, featuring soprano Angel Blue, are seven selections from LA Opera's Digital Shorts commissions featuring collaborations from innovative composers and visual artists.
● The Washington Ballet:Unbound, is a striking duet in front of the Washington National Cathedral.
● San Francisco Dance Film Festival: The international selection of short films from artists across Europe and the Americas include The Air Before Me, Quiet Hearts, Human Habitat, Dear Black Girls, Amen, Interconnected, Being, and L'entretien, with artists taking part including Amandine Albisson from Paris Opera Ballet, the 2021 winner of the Prix Benois de la Danse.
Susannah Simons, Editorial Director at Marquee TV said,
The very best short films have the power to inspire and excite all in a space of minutes, and great stories can be told in a very short time. We are thrilled to be presenting our selection of the very best from the world of dance, music and the spoken word.
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Dance programming for Summer Shorts Festival 2021
THE WASHINGTON BALLET
Unbound (premiere)
Site-specific pas de deux filmed in front of Washington National Cathedral. Choreographer Tamás Krizsa; composer Blake Neely.
SCOTTISH BALLET
The Swan
David Dawson's daring, visceral choreography from Swan Lake is perfectly paired with the rich, romantic Tchaikovsky score in our latest short film, The Swan. All-female cast led by Principal Dancer Constance Devernay.
Odyssey
Choreographed by Scottish Ballet Soloist Nicholas Shoesmith and directed by Ciaran Lyons, this high-octane short film takes viewers on a journey through a game-like landscape inhabited by otherworldly beings, where the real and virtual collide.
Dive
Scottish Ballet's Choreographer in Residence Sophie Laplane partners with James Bonas (The Crucible) and film director Oscar Sansom to create Dive, a short film inspired by French artist Yves Klein and what has become the world's most famous shade of blue.
SAN FRANCISCO DANCE FILM FESTIVAL
Being
A co-production of Social Tango Project, Mulata Films and Unsam University. Country of origin: Argentina
Dear Black Girls
Through movement-based art, this new film aims to connect the grief and the pain with the joy and the hope for this current moment. What are the values of the movement? How do we pay homage to black revolutionary women? How do we inspire people to take action? How do we know if people truly care to see real change? Country of origin: USA
Human Habitat
A female dancer takes us on an associative, non-narrative journey through emotional states facing the changes from a sustainable to a destructive relationship of humans and landscape. Country of origin: Norway
Interconnected
During a time of isolation and restraint, the need for human connection has only grown stronger. Technology can only bring us so close, but nothing can compare to physical touch. Country of origin: USA
L'Entretien
Featuring Amandine Albisson (principal at Paris Opera Ballet and 2021 winner of prestigious Prix Benois de la Danse for Best Female Dancer). In the future, there are no men left on earth, only maintenance programmed robots. Every night, at nightfall, the robot Mikkiprojects onto the stage of the Opera Garnier mysterious pictures of a dancer, as a last memory of mankind. Country of origin: France
Quiet Hearts
Shot in Los Angeles in April during the Covid-19 quarantine, this film was an experiment from its inception intending to convey the feelings of isolation, longing, and connection so many people were experiencing. The challenge was doing so in a safe and ethical way. Country of origin: USA
Amen
Dance film. Country of origin: Costa Rica
The Air Before Me
Featuring Boston Ballet principal dancer John Lam, the Air Before Me connects ethereal space and light with human agency in a continual affirmation of the present's power. Country of origin: USA
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
