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THE EXPERIENCE

We’ve watched a lot of dance films. For this tenth anniversary, we wanted to revisit a few of the films that have stayed with us.

Directors’ Picks: A Decade of PDFF is a cohort of nine films from the festival’s history that have remained especially meaningful to us. They come from nine countries and span a remarkable range of voices, styles, and stories. Together, these films offer a glimpse into the array of work that has excited and moved us over the years.

Please note in this program there is brief nudity and flashing lights/strobe effect during the film Boys a Bug. 

ON SCREEN: Director Picks

Old Man at the Corner Store, 2023 | Directed by Nadav Heyman and Anabella Casanova & Choreography by Nadav Heyman and Cheryl Mann | 8:10 | United States – An elderly man crosses paths with young neighborhood mischief-makers and dances them through a game of “follow the leader.” As they race through the streets, movement becomes their language for exchanging taunts, challenges, and new ways of seeing the world.

What I Know So Far, 2022 | Directed by Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern & Choreography by Emilie Leriche | 4:59 | France – A movement-and-words soliloquy that keeps track of small thoughts and fragments of knowledge, shaped as a poetic reminder.

Table for one, please., 2024 | Directed and Choreographed by Samantha Shay | 14:10 | Germany & United Kingdom – Emerging from rehearsals for the dance-theater work Life in this House is Over, this short explores the social awkwardness of grief through text, movement, memory, and dramatic vignettes. Inspired by Anton Chekhov, artists connected to Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch and Teatr ZAR reflect on the blurred boundary between past and future.

Dive, 2021 | Directed by Oscar Sansom & Choreography by Sophie Laplane | 13:00 | United Kingdom – Inspired by the visionary work of French artist Yves Klein, Dive immerses Scottish Ballet dancers in a monochrome blue world of empty white space. From stillness, the choreography moves into unexpected complexity, pairing Laplane’s distinctive movement with striking, teal-toned cinematography.

Second Seed, 2020 | Directed and Choreographed by Amadi “Baye” Washington and Sam “Asa” Pratt | 15:24 | United States – A dance-horror film responding to D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, Second Seed confronts the white-supremacist mythology and white victimhood embedded in Griffith’s film, reframing that history through contemporary Black movement and imagery.

TWINS: You Must Be Related!, 2018 | Directed by Varya Rootwood & Choreography by India Gonzalez and Ananda Gonzalez | 3:48 | United States – Twin sisters use tightly synchronized, increasingly frenetic movement to examine the assumptions placed on twins, their shared identity, the pressures of sisterhood, and the desire for individual independence.

Your Approval is Not Essential, 2017 | Directed by Leen Michiels & Choreography by Jelena Kostic | 11:49 | Belgium – After a chance encounter in a supermarket unlocks an unexpected passion, an ordinary woman’s gray routine gives way to a colorful, whimsical sensory overload. The film explores the liberating, and unruly, pleasures of letting go of inhibition.

Aura, 2023 | Directed and Choreographed by Chenglong Tang | 9:49 | China – Two dancers move through precisely structured, opposing configurations, on a black stage and against the open ocean, exploring balance, interdependence, isolation, and the existential questions of who we are and why we are here.

It Cries Too Loudly, 2021 | Directed and Choreographed by Dolly Sfeir | 8:28 | Lebanon / United States – Created in response to the 2020 Beirut explosion and its aftermath, this dance film explores the uneasy overlap of joy and tragedy, as well as the emotional distance and divided belonging experienced by a Lebanese American emigré.

Note: We do not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, and films exhibited don’t necessarily reflect the views of PAM CUT, the Tomorrow Theater, or the Portland Art Museum. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on sites like Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com.