Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, SansSouciFest.org

Sans Souci at the Boe, 2018
2590 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO, USA
Join us as SSF returns to the Boe for another season, with a fresh new take! This year, we're featuring lots of documentaries which illuminate dance and the lives of dancers across the globe, in and among our regular screenings of spectacular and experimental dance shorts. With almost no films repeated from other screening events this season, our selections from the Boe are entirely new this year, and are sure to entertain, provoke, inspire, and challenge viewers (most films are intended for adult audiences).

$12 General Admission, $7.50 Student/Senior, $6.50 Boedecker Members
Tickets available from Dairy Arts Center.
3 unique programs across 5 screenings:

Sept 30 & Oct 3: "Grugg and Yvonne: an Unlikely Couple" - 1 pm

Frame from Groggy Grugg

Groggy Grugg, 2018, United States, 4 min

Produced and Directed by Conor C. Long
Choreography by Brianna Lopez
Featuring University of Utah Screendance
Dancing by Grugg
Music by William Cannon
Filmmaker: Conor C. Long
A claymation screendance short film about that terrible every day struggle to get out of bed for that first delicious cup of coffee.
photo by © Al Giese
photo by © Al Giese

Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer, 2015, United States, 82 min

Directed by Jack Walsh
Produced by Christine Murray, Jack Walsh
Choreography by Yvonne Rainer
Dancing by Yvonne Rainer, Pat Catterson, Emily Coates, Patricia Hoffbauer, Keith Sabado, Emmanuelle Phuon, Sally Silvers
Cinematography by Marsha Kahm
Edited by Bill Weber and Laurie Lezin-Schmidt
"Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer" tells the story of postmodern dance maverick Yvonne Rainer. As a choreographer and filmmaker, Rainer has pushed the boundaries of America’s avant-garde for five decades. Over the course of her career, she revolutionized modern dance, was a performance art innovator, and radically changed experimental filmmaking -- all during a time when the art world largely ignored women. Now in her 80s, Rainer continues to make provocative works that push the boundaries of dance.

Oct 21 & 24: "Silence, Swarms, and Swimming: a Sans Souci Screening" - 1 pm

The Art Of Silence, 2018, Denmark, 27 min

Produced and Directed by Signe Roderik
Choreography by Inspired by Bournonville. New pieces created by Jeppesen, Eggert, Roderik and Hesselkilde
Featuring The Royal Danish Ballet
Dancing by Lis Jeppesen, Poul-Erik Hesselkilde and Morten Eggert
Music composed by Bach, Satie
Music performed by Misc.
Cinematography by Peter Riis
Edited by Michael Abel
"The Art of Silence" is an in-depth look at an exceptional profession within the Royal Danish Ballet, known as a 'character dancer.' Character dancers have been taking part in conveying magnificent stories in ballet for centuries and appear as a cornerstone in most of the great classics. Narrated by The Royal Danish character dancer Morten Eggert, the audience learn the history and tradition behind this sophisticated craftsmanship, and how it has meticulously been passed on through generations. The film celebrates this cultural legacy, as well as the importance of experience, age and generations.
Frame from The Wayward Wind

The Wayward Wind, 2017, United States, 4 min

Directed by Steve Delahoyde, Monica Thomas
Produced by Steve Delahoyde
Choreography by Monica Thomas
Featuring montom arts
Dancing by Angela Luem, Danielle Gilmore, Michael O'Niell
Music by Carl Sondrol
Filmmaker: Steve Delahoyde
With music by Carl Sondrol, The Wayward Wind uses movement and humor to turn the idea of the "rambling man" on its head.
Frame from in a fog

in a fog, 2017, United States, 3 min

Directed by Peter Litwinowicz
Produced by Peter Litwinowicz, Lizz Roman
Choreography by Lizz Roman, with dancers
Featuring Lizz Roman and Dancers
Dancing by Chris Black, Sonsherée Giles, Megan Lowe, Jamie Nakama, Linda Phung, Rowena Richie, Becky Robinson-Leviton, Sonya Smith
Music by Nicole Laby, Watersaw
Filmmaker: Peter Litwinowicz
San Francisco's ever-present fog is the inspiration for this otherworldly and ethereal study of dance, light and space.

Black Stains, 2017, United States, 13 min

Directed by Tiffany Rhynard
Produced by Trent D. Williams, Jr., Tiffany Rhynard, Heather Mathews
Choreography by Trent D. Williams Jr.
Featuring -
Dancing by Trent D. Williams, Jr., Larry Rosalez, Ersom Williams, Jerel Hercules, Daniel Morimoto
Music by Farai Malianga
Cinematography by Tiffany Rhynard
Edited by Heather Mathews
Black Stains addresses the systemic pattern of racial profiling by the police. Inspired by the personal experiences of choreographer Trent D. Williams, Jr., the film illustrates the reality of being black in the United States. Through interviews with men of varying ages and robust athletic dancing, the film persistently asks the question: why do we not see black men as human?
Frame from EMOTIONAL HOUDINI

EMOTIONAL HOUDINI, 2018, Canada, 3 min

Produced and Directed by ALLISON BEDA
Choreography by TARA CHEYENNE FRIEDENBERG
Featuring Tara Cheyenne Performance
Dancing by Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg
Music by Marc Stewart
Filmmaker: Allison Beda
A comedic experimental dance film about aging, memory loss and the difficulties of communicating with your dad.

SWARM, 2017, United Kingdom, 9 min

Directed by Emma Miranda Moore
Produced by There You Are
Choreography by Amber Doyle
Music composed by Joss Albért
Cinematography by Charles Mori
Edited by Roberta Bononi
A mysterious group of figures find one another in the woods. They unite in dance and, as the evening falls, reveal their true identities.
Frame from InterState

InterState, 2018, United States, 6 min

Directed by Ilana Goldman , Gabriel Williams
Choreography and dancing by Ilana Goldman
Featuring N/A
Music composed by Patrick McKinney
Music performed by Patrick McKinney and Greg Sauer
Cinematography by Gabriel Williams
Edited by Ilana Goldman
This short dance film features a mysterious and ambiguous masked figure embodying both animalistic and human characteristics as it travels across the country in search of home and self. InterState is an investigation of identity, migration, and displacement, set against the backdrop of America’s most dramatic and dynamic landscapes. From Seattle and St. Louis to Mt. Rushmore and variously magnificent national parks, InterState explores the connection (or lack thereof) between living organisms and habitat, at every turn questioning the idea of a “natural environment.” What do we carry with us when we move—literally? Each new location, each new scene provides an opportunity for the soloist to unearth a symbiotic way of moving in relation to the environment while simultaneously maintaining a sense of self, physically holding onto idiosyncrasies regardless of place, space, or time. By the film’s end, the audience is caught up in the soloist’s journey, bound to the rhythmic sense of timing created as the singular body carved space—and identity—in each terrain it inhabited.

November 5: "In Splendid Threads and Bodies: 3 Very Different Films" - 7 pm

In Splendid Unison, 2017, France, 60 min

Directed by Xavier Hirissou
Produced by Nancy Spanier Dance Theatre of Colorado, Inc.
Choreography by Nancy Spanier
Featuring Performance Inventions
Dancing by Paul Oertel
Music by Anthony Salvo
Filmmaker: Xavier Hirissou
A doc about the long-time Boulderite Nancy Spanier, who taught at CU in the Dance Department for 35 years and gained international attention for her choreographic endeavors, and who now lives in southern France. The doc, "In Splendid Unison" (directed by Xavier Hirissou) details the creative, personal, and professional partnership of Spanier and husband and muse, Paul Oertel-- a couple succeeding in not letting their personal differences stop them from doing creative work on an extremely high level -- and features years of performances refined into ASTOUNDING scenes and snippets, extrapolated on by their makers as well as the current film work they are now creating since moving to France. "In Splendid Unison" is a love story spanning 46 years, navigating the intimate nexus of art and life as this creative couple reflects on the continuing prospects of their ever evolving artistry.
Frame from  Women's threads

Women's Threads, 2017, Brazil, 10 min

Directed by Maria Fernanda Miranda, Paulo GCMiranda
Produced by Mandra Filmes
Choreography by Renata Lima
Featuring Mulheres de Linhas
Dancing by Maria Fernanda Miranda, Tainá Barreto, Ladyjane Macedo
Music composed by MESTRE SEBASTIÃO RODRIGUES PEREIRA
Music performed by -
Cinematography by Diego Zanotti
Edited by Paulo GC Miranda
In the scrublands of Gerais, amid crooked trees, flowery Ipês and airborne dust, there is a female universe of threads created and maintained by the hands of women of various ages. World of many hands. World of threads. Women of threads who, in spinning, weaving, and embroiderers, with their landscapes, webs, circles, needles and looms, their songs, create living entanglements in the form of female narratives and hand movements
Frame from Drop Out Bodies

Drop Out Bodies, 2017, France, 17 min

Directed by Ludivine Large-Bessette
Produced by LA.C Project, H.A.N.D
Choreography by Ludivine Large-Bessette, Mathieu Calmelet
Featuring LAC Project
Dancing by Sébastien Perrault, Agathe Cemin
Music by Mathieu Calmelet
Cinematography by Simon Roche
Edited by Gwenn Ghelid
In the silence and the monotony of a residential neighbourhood, men and women are standing in front of their houses, when they begin to fall in a random and irrevocable way. Evolving in tension from the discovery of frozen interpreters to their choreographed collapses, the film questions the fatality of the human body, but also our present times and our individual and collective responsibilities, through a contemporary reinterpretation of the danse macabre of the Middle Ages.