CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Flatlands Dance Film Festival will screen more than two dozen films about dance over three consecutive Tuesdays in September, including the Midwest premiere of a new film about hip-hop and break dancing.
This is the second year for the dance film festival, sponsored by the University of Illinois dance department, the Art Theatre Co-Op and Dance Partners, an organization that supports the dance department.
“The whole idea of the film festival is to unite communities – the dance community, the film community – and not just people who are professionals in those fields, but people who love the genres,” said Rebecca Ferrell, a lecturer in the dance department, choreographer and co-curator of the film festival.
This year’s festival kicks off with the Midwest premiere of “Shake the Dust.” The film shows the positive impact of hip-hop and break dancing on young people living in slums around the world. It will be shown at 7 p.m. Sept. 1 at the Art Theatre Co-Op in Champaign.
The film festival will feature 13 short films, each 15 minutes or less in length, on Sept. 8. Two of the films were co-directed by Charli Brissey, a first-year Master’s of Fine Arts in Dance student. Brissey will serve as guest speaker that evening. Her film “Pas” has been shown at numerous film festivals. That film and her second film in the festival, “What’s What,” deal with gender issues in dance. Both films have won best of festival awards at other film festivals.
The final evening of the festival, Sept. 15, will feature the winners of the festival’s film competition. The festival received 73 submissions from all over the world. The entries were narrowed down to the 13 films that will be shown at the festival by a team of three community members – Luke Boyce of Shatterglass Studios; Laura Chiaramonte, a local artist and choreographer and graduate of the dance program; and Mark Rhodes, a former board member of the Art Theatre Co-op and a member of Dance Partners.
Following the screening, one of the films will be awarded a prize for best in show. Ferrell said the films represent a range of subject matter, including stories with humor and with darker themes, and a range of production values, with some very slick productions and others that are grittier.
Ferrell said the films will bring dance to the public in a different way than stage productions do. She said the angle and focus of the camera shots, editing, casting, music and variety of physical environments bring a different kind of artistry to dance on film that isn’t possible on stage.
“It’s a genre that’s really growing,” Ferrell said. “In dance, technology is being more integrated into our work, so it’s natural for us to be drawn to this means of expression.”
Tickets for the film festival are $10 for students and $15 for nonstudents for a one-night pass, and $25 for students and $40 for nonstudents for a festival pass.