Dance Camera West (DCW)announces the launching of DCW2020 Virtual Film Festival Thursday, May 14 through Monday, June 1, 2020 on OVID.TV, a novel subscription video-on-demand service that features documentaries, independent films, and other significant works of international cinema that are essentially not available on other platforms.
Interested viewers may purchase a 7 day access to films screened at the January DCW 2020 at REDCAT and other venues in Los Angeles. The presented filmmakers have graciously agreed to donate the box office proceeds in support of DCW’s future programs. Many of the films featured during this Virtual Film Festival will be made available to OVID.TV subscribers, with future revenue going directly to the filmmakers.
DCW is part of a growing international community of performing artists and filmmakers who have suffered financially by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These filmmakers make a living by showing their films at in-person film festivals and in theaters around the world. One particularly important element of DCW 2020 was its plan to tour these films at venues that included the Los Angeles Film Festival, The Frida Cinema, The Muckanthaler Cultural Center, and Arts Power at UC San Diego to list only a few. DCW2020 have partnered with sponsor OVID.TV to make the Virtual Film Festival accessible for home viewing on OVID’s platform that already offers a wonderful collection of dance films.
Kelly Hargraves, Executive Director of Dance Camera West, says, “DCW2020 was a resounding success. The diversity and breadth of the programming presented in DCW2020 was, ultimately, our greatest success. We have rece4ived notes of praise and requests to view the films in the months since January so we are so very proud to now be able to share it with wider audiences.”
She went on to say that this success was achieved by “creating an inclusive, diverse selection committee of LA artists/curators; a record number of film subscriptions and film submissions; a record number of films presented from over 40 countries; large audiences, and most importantly, the fulfillment of the DCW mission to create revenue for artists through live event presentation and distribution.”
Rather than spending your shelter-in-place time binge watching old TV re-runs, DCW invites you to spend your precious time viewing an international selection of beautiful dance films that you can also share with friends and students.
“This is an experiment and we hope dance lovers and students will find it gratifying, although we don’t ever want to replace our real life big screen festival experience.” Hargraves said. “ We hope this event helps the organization, the filmmakers and the audiences new and old experience dance film.”
Please visit the DCW2020 Virtual Film Festival and to pre-order a viewing pass or to check in on May 14th when the festival goes live. To receive a special price of $10, please use the discount code DCWMEMBER.
Also, please stay tuned for updates on DCW’s touring plans and DCW2021 for which they are now accepting submissions HERE.
If you would like the opportunity to Make a Dance Film, check out LADC’s April 14, 2020 article on the Shut In Dance Film Fest, a digital festival for artistic growth and creative collaboration in times of separation directed by Nicole Berger (choreographer for The Good Place, VEEP, Brooklyn Nine Nine).
Shut In Dance Film Fest has curated a roster of master artists to offer educational resources and creative inspiration in the form of FREE video tutorials providing tips and tricks for creating cinema quality dance films from home and on a budget. Additionally, our team of Creative Directors have each provided a directive to spark your creativity. To contribute to the festival, film a short video based on these directives (that follows our guidelines for submission) and submit through our website to be considered for inclusion in our final projects. The final projects will be designed by our Creative Directors, based on selected submissions, and edited together by our team, resulting in original dance films, made in collaboration, while apart.
To visit the Shut In Dance Film Festival website, click here.
Written and compiled by Jeff Slayton for LADC, May 7, 2020.
Featured image: Photo courtesy of Dance Camera West 2020.
