Frame Rush

Amygdala, Han Myers, United Kingdom, 2023, 06:00

A surrealist film that immerses viewers through the ear canal and into the depths of the human brain. Exploring themes of hearing, listening, and monotony, this film challenges our perception and understanding of reality.

Bag Ladies, Cailin Manning, United Kingdom, 2023, 07:29

Bag Ladies is a movement-based film exploring the burdens of the feminine. From societal and cultural expectations of marriage, motherhood and beauty, to personal traumas of sexual abuse, political attacks and misogyny across time and space, we asked what this weight would look like if the world could see it. Though burdensome, the strength to continue forward illuminates the resilience and collective strength of women facing adversity. Bag Ladies is a celebration of the tenacity and spirit of women and the transformative force of unity in facing life's trials head-on.

BIRDHAUS, Camila Serrano, United Kingdom, 2023, 07:30

Birdwatching is the best way to connect with nature in the city. What can we learn from nature but also, what is the natural world learning from us? Combining the aesthetics of the Bauhaus art movement and nature mockumentary, this quirky film questions who is watching who.

CAMOMILLA, Alessia Langiano, Italy, 2023, 03:50

Physical manifestation of an internal chaos. Chamomile symbolises the metaphorical cure.

iwishyoustayed, Brian Toh, Singapore, 2022, 05:08

"I wish you stayed! I wish I stayed too, now I wish I stayed, I wish I'd done a lot of things. I wish I stayed."

A Screendance film exploring the way in which we tell stories through movement; iwishyoustayed reflects on the complexities of power relations in intimacy. Instead of seeking excuses for violence, the film and its makers wish to understand and display a male perspective (and more extensively that on more diverse gender dynamics) in abusive relationships.

The choreography was constructed based on pedestrian movements and is deliberately made to not feel like a dance. It experiments with the limits of telling subtle, intricate feelings, by borrowing from filmmaker concepts of blocking and performance for "the camera”.

Sincerely Loud, Julian Gypens, Belgium 2024, 17:12

Pelle is transitioning, as she changes, so do her relationships with the members of her choir. A choir led by Ellen, a fellow trans woman of a different generation.

SLIP, Isobel Bridge, United Kingdom, 2023, 05:13

Journey into the warm embrace of SLIP. Exploring the fluidity of gender, searching for moments of alignment. Slipping between dimensions until the edges of yourself become clear.

Boogeyman, Adrián Cores, Spain, 2023, 09:51

A young black man walking back home stepping on the line of what is normal and what is suspicious. A special individual being misunderstood. A scared neighbour, a 911 call and its consequences.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING.
Who is the victim and who is the hangman?
Who is to be feared and who is really the boogeyman?

Covered in Spicy Salsa, Tanya Rojas Magdaleno, United Kingdom, 2023, 04:30

Through the lens of Latin dance styles, including salsa, bachata and cumbia, this film examines what it means to be a Latina in a foreign country. Searching for home and a sense of belonging in food, in dance and in music, and going through the difficulties, as a part of the global south, of having some of this identity defined by the white, dominant culture- what is this disguise called ‘Latin-ness’ that I find myself getting into, just to fit into others’ (and my own) expectations of what I should be as a Latina? What does it mean to ‘dance like a Mexican’?

Déjà Nu, Rolf Hellat, Côte d'Ivoire, 2023, 14:19

Déjà Nu is an audiovisual poem about the appreciation of transiency, the recognition of the body, the ensoulment of nature, euphoria and loss. It is an associative work of polycultural sentiments.

DÚIRT TÚ (you said), Shaun Dunne, Zoe Ní Riordáin, One Two One Two, Ireland, 2020, 08:39

DÚIRT TÚ (you said) is the story of a break-up and a breakdown in communication. Two former partners are divided by distance. One wishes to reconnect, the other refuses to answer the call. Structured in the style of a fever dream, this Irish language film explores ideas around reconciliation and coercion, love and control.

Fringe, Jasmine Ellis, Germany, 2022, 10:32

Amie and Victor head into the woods. A short film about now.

Les fleurs du mâle, Hadi Moussally, Spain, 2023, 03:49

”The mysterious creature, Salma, realises that being herself has repercussions on her life and that she will never be accepted as she is. So she decides to ask the creatress of this world for mercy." The film was shot in super 8 and edited in-camera. It was inspired by the letter sent by Charles Baudelaire to the Empress Eugenie after being censored and fined for his book "Les fleurs du mal". The reason for the condemnation: offence to public morals and good manners as well as offence to religious morality.

Offering, Marlene Millar, Canada, 2023, 05:00

Offering creates a meaningful and joyful convergence between the Migration Dance Film Project’s body percussion artists and emerging artists from dance (gigue, contemporary, street) and circus arts. The choreography uses the power of procession in Montreal’s urban borough of Little Burgundy to amplify its storyline of (re)imagined homescape in the era of mid-pandemic. The procession formed by movement artists from across communities weaves its way through urban corridors, neighbourhoods, green spaces — an uncoiled assemblage of nomadic storytellers anchored in the intimate knowledge of individual and shared experiences in unison. Offering imbues movement in stillness within our city and takes refuge in its powerful migratory patterns traced across our urbanscape.

The Lizard of my Dream, Faissal El-Malak, United Kingdom, 2023, 08:33

The Lizard of my Dream is an expansion on an image from a dream the artist had that depicted a man being offered a live imaginary lizard and its blood blob version on a trolley in a red cafe. Through research into the symbols in that image the artist was able to create links with Palestinian folk song "Zareef Al Toul" that speaks of longing and loss. The artist embodies both the green and red lizards in song and dance showing their opposing approaches to longing and heartbreak. This all happens in a dreamlike surreal fabricated perspective.

To Hold My Love, Elettra Giunta, Adam Othman, United Kingdom, 2023, 10:00

Experimental dance film To Hold My Love serves as a window to womanhood and vulnerability. Shifting between realities the film follows a series of personal journeys that converge as performers become one. To Hold My Love merges dance with spoken word, music and fashion. It unravels the journeys of five dancers, who through their bodies and their language explore themes of women’s vulnerabilities, identity, self-expression, and body image. Split between dream and reality, the work serves as a window to womanhood.

Why Do I Always Survive, Irishia Hubbard Romaine, United States, 2023, 06:11

A presence hangs suspended, a bridge between epochs and dimensions. Within this immersive experience, the ancestral voices reverberate through her essence, whispering secrets of our heritage. Why Do I Always Survive is a colourful exploration of corporeal existence through the unique perspective of the Black moving body.

Han Myers
Han Myers is a trained dancer, choreographer, educator, director and screendance maker from the United States. Her work and research centres on the intersections between visual art, sound art and dance, and the influence of experimental art and filmmaking practices on contemporary society and culture.

Cailin Manning
Cailin Manning is a choreographic artist whose work explores the dynamic interplay between the moving body, the moving image, and the moving world. Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Cailin now resides in London, England, where she continues to create as a choreographic and screendance artist, director, and teacher. With works that span the stage, immersive sites, and the screen, the heart of her work lies in viewing the world through the lens of choreography and movement, hoping that each piece can intrigue, ignite, or inspire.

Camila Serrano
Camila, a versatile filmmaker from Denver, Colorado, merges her passion for dance and documentary into compelling narratives. With expertise in film editing, directing, and festival curation, she brings a diverse industry background, including international distribution and art department roles in commercials and films. A recent graduate of the MA Screendance programme at the London Contemporary Dance School, Camila explores the intersection of dance, technology, and the environment in her work.

Alessa Langiano
Alessia Langiano is a screendance maker from Italy. After graduating with a BA in Contemporary Dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, she undertook screendance studies at London Contemporary Dance School. Her work is centred on the relationship between film and movement with a special focus on choreographic editing.

Brian Toh
Brian Toh is a Screendance artist from Singapore with over 8 years of experience working with local dancers in exploring the medium of film. A filmmaker first, and a B-boy, his directorial debut work,iwishyoustayed, is a piece that came from an intimate place - a response to the current landscape of Screendance in Singapore as well as his own personal experiences at that point in time. His current work revolves around exploring whimsy and sincerity in narrative storytelling, as well as developing cultural archival in Southeast Asia through the lens of Screendance.

Julian Gypens
Julian Gypens was born in Brussels and began their artistic career as a contemporary dancer. After completing a Master's in Screendance at London Contemporary Dance School, they now focus on blending Screendance and documentary formats.

Isobel Bridge

Isobel is a movement artist and filmmaker based in London and Bristol. In 2019 she graduated from Falmouth University with a First class BA hons degree in Dance and Choreography. She just completed a Masters at London Contemporary Dance School studying Screendance. During her studies at LCDS she was interested in gaze theory and made a short documentary exploring the ‘non-binary gaze’.

Adrián Cores
Adrián Cores is a cinematographer based in Madrid, Spain. His debut feature film, “Los Muertos”, was pre-selected to represent Mexico at the Oscars 2016, and premiered at Festival Mar de Plata. Adrian's recent camera credits include work on,"Historia Minima de la Bici" Documentary film premiered at New York Cycle Film Festival and SPOO Int Film Festival, "El Candidato Rayo" Series (2018) and several Shorts and Advertising films. He studied at NYFA, CECC, Bande a Part and Rafa Roche Color Grading.

Tanya Rojas Magdaleno
Tanya was born in Fort Wayne, IN, USA but grew up in Mexico and identifies as 100% Mexican. She started dancing classical ballet at the age of 12, and after 10 years of that as well as dabbling in History of Art, she moved to London to study Contemporary Dance at Trinity Laban in 2020. Recently graduated, she is a freelance dance artist and performer, currently focusing on developing her creative practice, which includes choreography, dance films, and performance.

Rolf Hellat
Rolf Hellat studied film at the School of Arts Zurich, Switzerland. He attended an exchange programme at the film institute of India in Pune. Since then he has made fictional and documentary films as a director and editor, which have been shown at Palm Springs Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival, among others. He seeks to understand connections between humans in all their diversity and desires humanity as a humble part of nature. He is constantly in a state of learning and tries to reflect on his privileges.

Shaun Dunne
Shaun Dunne is a Dublin-based film and theatre-artist.

Zoe Ní Riordáin
Zoe Ní Riordáin is an award winning theatre and film maker from Dublin.

Jasmine Ellis
Jasmine Ellis is a Canadian choreographer and award–winning film director based in Munich, Germany. She is a graduate of Etobicoke School of the Arts, The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and Codarts Rotterdam Conservatory. Ellis’s uncategorized approach to film, movement, body language, text and music is the basis of her artistic approach in which humour, vulnerability and familiarity are woven together to create unexpected worlds. Ellis is the Artistic Director of Jasmine Ellis Projects and Bad Posture Productions.

Hadi Moussally
Hadi Moussally was born in Lebanon in 1987. By age 18, he studied film direction in France where he acquired a first master's degree in 'Fiction Cinema' from Paris-Est Marne la Vallée University. Moussally continued his studies with a complementary masters in Documentary and Anthropological Cinema at Paris X Nanterre University under Jean Rouch, acquainting himself with reality-cinema. An anthropological and documentary approach has led him to keenly observe his subjects and to utilise instantaneous shooting, whilst his fiction background urges him to create sensual, esthetically pleasing imagery universes.

Marlene Millar
For over 30 years filmmaker Marlene Millar has created screendance, documentaries and experimental media productions. With a background in design, contemporary dance and filmmaking (BFA Concordia University, Montreal), Marlene pursued graduate filmmaking at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, before she received a Pew Dance Media Fellowship at the University of California (Los Angeles). Millar’s expansive career was honoured at her first solo exhibition, a retrospective of her 30-year practice at Threshold Artspace, UK (2019).

Faissal El-Malak
Faissal El-Malak (b.1988) is a Palestinian multidisciplinary artist based in London. Interested in themes of memory and the metaphysical he sources images from the subconscious through his work as a healer. His practice aims to consolidate a diasporic identity through folk and embodiment. He completed the MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University of London in 2023 with the support of the Tashkeel Scholarship Fund, and he was awarded the Warden’s Prize for his degree show. Previously, El-Malak’s work in fashion was acquired by the Victoria and Albert museum in London in 2019, making him the first Palestinian designer to integrate into their permanent collection.

Elettra Giunta
Elettra Giunta is originally from Sicily, Italy. Elettra works across the film, music video, fashion, live performances and installation settings. She is interested in making work that uses the body as a vessel to address issues surrounding the woman's body, the complexity of human emotions, and the notions of intimacy and care.

Adam Othman
Adam Othman born in Malaysia and raised in the UK. Adam’s work spans the realms of fashion, music and visual arts. His approach to artistic practice is an unyielding dedication to storytelling, attempting to create consistent threads between his diverse creations. He aims to depict moments in time that resonate with marginalised groups who are often not centred in visual arts.

Irishia Hubbard Romaine
Irishia Hubbard Romaine (she/her) is an American experimental filmmaker who works primarily with the embodied Black female experience. Her artistic practice is rooted in her cultural identity as a Black female, filmmaker, and movement practitioner from the South. Irishia is an Assistant Professor in the School of Dance at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania and a 2024 Mellon Arts & Practitioner Fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM). Additionally, she serves as a professional stager for the Donald McKayle Legacy and as Visibility Program Director for Dance Camera West.

Frame Rush is directed and produced collaboratively by the MA Screendance 2024 Cohort

Programming and Creative Direction: The MA Screendance Cohort 2024
Artist Liaison: Oddalys Salcido, Marie Williamson
Audience & Ticketing: Gabriel Heathman, Lizzie Johnstone
Event production: Lauren Heckler
Marketing leads: Blue Ka Wing, Eloïse Frey
Production & Finance: Cat Caruncho
Technical Production: Laura Bodner, Tanica Wimbleton-McEvoy

MA Screendance Unit Leader: Gitta Wigro
Frame Rush Producer: Iris Chan

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