Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, SansSouciFest.org

4th Annual Womens History Month Screenings
Given the times we’re living in, we’re delighted to once again be able to offer online screening options for those who may not want or be able to attend in-person events. These films will become available on this page during the screening window, free of charge for the public around the world.

As part of our efforts to move toward a more racially just and socially equitable landscape for dance cinema, SSF has celebrated heritage months for the last few years with screenings highlighting artists from communities underrepresented in the field, and from marginalized communities. These screenings have always been free of charge to our local community in Boulder, Colorado, USA, but since the pandemic began, we’ve taken them online to share with the wider dance cinema community. Sans Souci presents our 4th annual Women's History Month Screening, celebrates and features the work of Women directors and extraordinary Women performers.

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Frame from Dance

Dance, 2019, Brazil, 3 min

Produced by Fabi Tombely, Sheurily Costa, Duane Kurten
"Dance" is a project with the aim of exposing questions and dialogues about the materiality of female bodies. The film talks about the dichotomy of freedom and the imprisonment of human beings. At the same time, "Dance" talks about inhabiting this limited body in the materiality of this existence and living this experience through intersubjective and symbolic exchanges. "Dance" also proposes to talk about the machismo concepts that point, mainly, to the female body The film was inspired by the story of Rafaela Pontes, a 22-year-old practitioner of the art of pole dance, who, on the paths that cross and intersect the woman's body, bumps into the walls of prejudice and machismo. "Dance" is also about looking at bodies. The film speaks not only about Rafa, but about the existence of the female body in Brazil or in our humanity. The choice of narrative told through poetry came from contact with several stories of women in this process of connection and (re)connection with their own existence. From this, a poetic discourse that represents each woman is born. "Dance" was recorded in the city of Curitiba and Pinhas, Paraná, Brazil, in 2019. It falls under the category of video art, musical film or experimental film.
Frame from Fresh Oranges into the Ocean

Fresh Oranges into the Ocean, 2022, Italy, 12 min

Directed by Silvia Giordano
Produced by La Cap | Creative Re-Hub
Choreography by Silvia Giordano
Featuring Eduarda Santos, Noemi Calzavara, Reiko Ohta
Music composed by Giorgos Gargalas
Cinematography by Sofia Quercetti
Edited by Silvia Giordano & Nuanda Sheridan

Concept by Silvia Giordano
Video Director by Nuanda Sheridan
While merging and intertwining with nature, three young girls create a metaphorical and visionary narrative of their present condition and their projections towards the future. Through their lightness, disorientation, vitality and strength, they embark on an choreographic journey facing high and low tides, turbulence and contradictions, calm and turmoil. Guided by absurd questions the oranges reflect the path of the protagonists in their delicate passage to adulthood and guide us in a poetic reflection on our lives.
Frame from Gusts

Gusts, 2022, United States, 3 min

Directed by Christiana Wheeler, Thomas Wingerd
A dance film about the ebb and flow of wind and the movement inspired by it.

And Somewhere In Between, 2022, United Kingdom, 4 min

Directed by Alice Underwood
Choreography by Shaun Dillon and Aimee Dulake
Featuring Dillon Dance
And Somewhere In Between is a duet. A connection. A hello. A goodbye. A relationship. A family. A moment in between many moments. An unknown.

Scapelands, 2020, United Kingdom, 4 min

Produced and Directed by Katie Beard, Naomi Turner
Choreography by Liv Lockwood
Scapelands explores our primal connections with nature and the effect of urban living on the human mind. Due to the current global pandemic, the psychological impact of our physical environments is being felt more significantly than ever before. Scapelands depicts this feeling of being boxed in and the inherent need to reconnect with something beyond our man-made walls. Scapelands was commissioned by BBC Arts and Arts Council England as part of the New Creatives Scheme.

Sound of Movement, 2021, Germany, 3 min

Produced and Directed by Daniela Meise
Choreography by Minh-Thu Nguyen
Synopsis coming soon.
Frame from Dança Para um Poema

Dance for a Poem (Dança para um Poema), 2022, Brazil, 6 min

Directed by Paula Stricker Lima
Produced by Vinicius Matos Gimenez
Featuring Paula Stricker
This work was developed from the research of poems collected in listening points in the city of Londrina, and seeks to trace paths between Dance and Word, linking, in a poetic way, the textual compositions with the movements of a body, present, that dances, creates and feels, giving expression to the voices that are present.

Gudirr Gudirr, 2021, Australia, 22 min

Directed by Vernon Ah Kee
Produced by Bridget Ikin
Choreography by Marrugeku
Featuring Dalisa Pigram
"Gudirr Gudirr" is a video and sound work, created for three screen projection and as a single screen triptych for cinema and festival screenings, directed by Vernon Ah Kee, developed from the compelling solo dance work created by Marrugeku and performed by Dalisa Pigram. Filmed on location in the Kimberley, this stunning screen work re-imagines the original dance performance. The guwayi bird calls when the tide is turning — to miss the call is to drown. By turns hesitant, restless, resilient and angry, "Gudirr Gudirr" lights a path from a broken past through a fragile present and towards an uncertain future. Considering the legacy of Australia’s history for Aboriginal people in northwest Australia today "Gudirr Gudirr" asks: what does it take to decolonise Aboriginal peoples’ minds, to unlock doors and to face cultural change? The installation calls a warning to a community facing massive industrialisation on traditional lands, loss of language and major gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous wellbeing. Drawing on a physicality borne of her Asian–Indigenous identity, Dalisa Pigram builds a dance language to capture this moment in time for her people.