Summer Shorts Festival returns with a series of short films available for global audiences. The arts streaming site will share “shorts” from leading arts organizations and festivals across dance, theater and music, bringing together new and established talent from around the world. Films featured in the festival include submissions from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Scottish Ballet, Manchester Camerata, Stuttgart's Gauthier Dance Company, San Francisco Dance Film Festival (SFDFF) and Australia's Inspired Dance Film Festival, among others.
We were overwhelmed by the sheer number and quality of short films we received this year and choosing just 30 was a challenge. Telling a story in a short amount of time is a real skill and it is wonderful to see how many artists have responded to the challenge is such an exciting and creative way. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have!
Susannah Simons, Director of Partnerships and lead curator of the Summer Shorts Festival at Marquee TV
The year's festival slate features a topical focus on how the arts help people express their identities — From Manchester Camerata's film about early-onset dementia, to Akil McKenzie's Historians from San Francisco Dance Film Festival about being a young, Black man grow in the U.S., to disabled dance artist Annie Edward's dance film as part of Scottish Ballet's The Shimmering Extraordinary series.
Most of us aren't traveling to San Francisco, Sydney, and Stuttgart this summer, but we can all experience the creative outputs of some of those cities' most exciting contemporary artists. Marquee TV is a creative connector and a the hub for discovery that meets audiences where they are, wherever they are. Summer Shorts is a wonderful entry point for exploration.
Ryan McKinny, Artist, film maker, and Head of U.S. Content Partnerships at Marquee TV
San Francisco Dance Film Festival: Evidence of it all, a short film with written by Pulitzer-winning librettist Royce Vavrek, narrated by Golden Globe-winning actress Rosamund Pike, and choreographed by Drew Jacoby (Nederlands Dans Theater, Royal Ballet of Flanders). Also by San Francisco Dance Company is Fly me to the moon, a film celebrating COL Gail Seymour “The Candy Bomber,” a senior officer and command pilot in the US Air Force who gained fame for dropping candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1949.
Full list of SFDFF films:
Fly Me To The Moon
Historians
Pointe A2B
Smokestack Lightning
Tang'o
Evidence of it all
Scottish Ballet: The Shimmering Extraordinary is a mini-series of six short dance films created by Emmy-nominated director Fx Goby, focusing on the stories of six dancers including drag artist Nikita, designer and choreographer Saul Nash and disabled dance artist Annie Edwards. Each video focuses on the themes of acceptance, identity and respect, looking at how the individuals used dance to overcome obstacles.
Full list of the Shimmering Extraordinary – Scottish Ballet films:
Annie
Maddy
Mukeni
Zahra
Saul
Inspired dance film festival presents Made of Everything is a dance film & documentary hybrid that explores the combined experiences of three sisters as they reflect on their individual perspectives of death, grief, and connection five years after losing their mother to breast cancer. A unique film that utilises choreographed movement and spoken narration to share the personal stories of three women, highlighting the sacred bond that unites them through sisterhood and loss.
Sirens Tango takes us inside a grand dance hall in the 1930s. A series of men are lured to their destruction when they engage in a steamy tango with a seductive dance partner. With a lush musical score, Jazz Age costumes, and visually striking cinematography, this evocative short film uses the Tango as a metaphor for life's tempting interruptions.
Full list of IDFF films:
Murmuring (Australia)
Made of Everything (Australia)
Small World – Memory of Love (Japan)
Sirens Tango (USA)
Being (Argentina)
2020 Vision (UK)
Bonus: Drift is a short film featuring choreographer Cathy Marston improvising on the banks of the River Aare in Bern, Switzerland. Directed by Felix von Muralt with music written by Philip Feeney.
Cathy Marston | Drift
May Zarhy | Five Studios & Detail