This article was edited on December 17, 2021 to add additional information.
Kelly Hargraves is the Executive Director, Artistic Director and Co-founder of one of the leading dance festivals in the USA, if not the world, Dance Camera West. She is also the curator of 2022 Dance Camera West Film Festival (DCW2022) taking place January 6 – 15, 2022 with IN PERSON events at TWO highly regarded venues in Los Angeles. The festival will offer 3 evenings of international films January 6-8, 2022 at the beautiful Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in West Los Angeles. The screenings at the Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz will feature refreshing new dance films from France, Australia, Canada, Spain, the U.K., Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Kuwait, The Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Colombia, and Italy along with artist Q&As and wine and cheese during intermissions. The closing weekend of DCW2022, January 13-15, 2022, will take place at the newly founded 2220 Arts & Archives (formerly The Bootleg Theater) in downtown Los Angeles.
DCW2022 marks the 20th anniversary for this renowned dance film festival and everyone at DCW is excited to be offering IN-PERSON screenings in two venues following this seemingly endless era of COVID. As in the past, DCW2022 will be premiering the top films selected from over a record number of 400 national and international film submissions. This year’s films, occurring at 11 distinct programs, will screen the top 75 films highlighting experimental shorts, animation, and feature documentaries representing over 40 countries from Asia, Europe and the Americas.
2022 Dance Camera West Film Festival – “Elsewhere” – Screenshot courtesy of DCW
Pierre Leloup was designated as director of Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz by the President and Founder of Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles, Raymond Kabbaz, where this intimate theater is located. Recently Leloup has partnered with the Los Angeles Dance Festival, produced by Deborah Brockus, and 2022 will mark the second year he has coordinated with DCW to screen international dance films. Leloup has definitely had an increasing role in supporting dance in Los Angeles as well as presenting several on tour international dance companies at the Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz.
2022 Dance Camera West Film Festival – “Ink & Linda” – Screenshot courtesy of DCW
There is an outstanding number of U.S. and California-based artists represented this year at DCW2022 and many of them will attend the festival. Those include Kitty McNamee, Nathan Hirshcaut, Gabriel Diamond, Stu Paul, Inksap, Linda Lack, Roberta Shaw, and Whim W’him (Madison Olandt / Mike Tyrus).
Another exciting piece of information to announce is that DCW2022 was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to help finance a mentorship program for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artists. A committee was organized by DCW to specifically select films created during Los Angeles-based dance festivals which were forced to go online due to COVID.
“The goal is to identify films that have the potential for a strong cinematic impact on the choreography, and to strengthen the “production value,” by partnering them with experienced, skilled dance filmmakers who act as mentors,” says Hargraves. “DCW acts as a producer on the project paying each artist and mentor an artist fee and production costs and leaves all artistic decisions up to the teams selected. The 2021-22 Mentors are Roma Flowers, Robin Gee, Yolanda Guadarrama and Cara Hagan.”
“Jolly Folly” – Erik Woolhouse in a film by Amy Becker – Choreographed by Arielle Smith – English National Ballet – Courtesy of DCW
The festival’s closing weekend events (January 13-15, 2022) take place at the newly formed 2220 Arts & Archives Arts Center, formerly known as The Bootleg Theater, in downtown. From noon to 8pm on January 15th, there will be installations and pop-up performances by festival participants throughout the 2220 Arts venue space, and at the end of each evening, there will be a party complete with an in-person DJ in the venue’s lounge bar.
On the final night of the film festival, Saturday, January 15, 2022, DCW2022 will feature films by several DCW Mentorship/Finishing Fund Awardees. Those artists whose films will make their World Premiere as part of DCW’s Finishing Fund for Underrepresented Artists include Letxia Cordova, Marquisa Gardner, Irishia Hubbard, Alyssa Junious, Austyn Rich, and RouRou
2022 Dance Camera West Film Festival – “Slip” – Screenshot courtesy of DCW
DCW2022 was realized by the incomparable Hargraves with the help of a 30 member Selection Committee made up of members of LA’s diverse dance community representing a broad range of identities. The DCW Programming Committee is led by Cati Jean; Produced by Amber Adams; and the DCW Board of Directors include George Lugg (President), Lionel Popkin, David Roussève, Sophie Robertson and Lynn Tejada.
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WHAT: The 2022 Dance Camera West Film Festival. Each film making its World, US and/or LA Premiere
WHEN: January 6 – 15, 2022
WHERE: Two weekends – two venues
Thursday, January 6 to Saturday, January 8, 2022 at 8 PM (PT)
Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz
10361 West Pico Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA. 90064
Tickets: $15 for each night or $30 for all three nights
Each night of the festival includes conversations with filmmakers, producers, dancers, choreographers, and festival directors on the stage of Theatre Raymond Kabbaz (or pre-recorded, depending on travel restrictions), free wine and cheese tastings at intermission, and complimentary access to 5 BONUS films, screened online for MORE INSPIRATION on Sunday, January 9th at 5pm.
To purchase tickets, click HERE
Thursday, January 13 to Saturday, January 15, 2022
2220 Arts + Archives
2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
A11 Screenings, DJ & LIVE Music After Parties!, Pop-up Performances, Artist Q&As, DCW Finishing Fund Mentorship World Premieres on Saturday January 15, 2022,8:30 pm
Tickets are $15 for each screening or $75 for the weekend. Link to purchases tickets goes live on Monday, December 20, 2021 HERE.
Special Additional Showing
Friday, January 14, 2022 at 7:00 pm
Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic
World Premiere Live Screening of a 37-minute dance film featuring six dances written inside Norco Prison during the covid lockdown, by 12 formerly incarcerated and “free world” artists conversing on dance and choreography in carceral spaces.
It is an honor to dance these works highlighting six of the dances written/choreographed inside the prison by Brandon Alexander, Richie Martinez, Landon Reynolds and Terry Sakamoto Jr., including a film of the written work transformed into embodied dances in sites throughout the Santa Monica civic center area, drawing focus to the nation’s school to prison nexus (Meiners, 2007), followed by a conversation with the artists involved.
In 2016, choreographer and educator, Suchi Branfman, began a five-year choreographic residency inside the California Rehabilitation Center, a medium-security state men’s prison in Norco, California. The project, dubbed “Dancing Through Prison Walls,” developed into a critical dialogue about freedom, confinement, and ways for surviving restriction, limitations, and denial of liberty through the act of dancing. The dancing abruptly ended in March 2020, when the California state prison system shut down programming and visitation due to Covid-19. The work was rapidly revised, and the incarcerated dancers began sending out written choreographies from their bunks to the outside world. The resulting collection of deeply imagined choreographic pieces, written between March and May of 2020, became Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic.
“Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic” – Photo courtesy of DCW
FULL TWO WEEK FESTIVAL PASS $100
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A Message From Dance Camera West
International Dance: Los Angeles kicks off the month-long DCW 2022 [in two separate venues]. Theatre Raymond Kabbaz in collaboration with Dance Camera West, we roll out an exclusive set of international dance films that connects cultures, dancers old and young and stories. Each dance film brings a different discipline to the forefront, be it dance, choreography or cinematography, and some films present all three at once. Not to be missed by dance lovers.
Enjoy new work from filmmakers and choreographers from France, Australia, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and more, all wrapped in an artistically minded 3-day festival. Exclusive interviews on stage with filmmakers, producers, dancers, choreographers and festival directors.
Here are several ways to help support DCW
DONATE
SPONSORSHIP
MEMBERSHIP
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For more information please visit the Dance Camera West website.
For more information about Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz, please visit their website.
To learn more about 2220 Arts & Archives, please visit their website.
Contact information: KELLY@DANCECAMERAWEST.ORG – or call 323-493-1548
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: 2022 Dance Camera West Film Festival – “Exaltation” – Screenshot courtesy of DCW
