FRAME London Dance Film Festival Sets 2016 Programme

The full programme has today been announced for the inaugural FRAME London Dance Film Festival. The vast programme of films and events is to take place from 9 to 12 June 2016 in Kingston-upon-Thames, London. Presented by the UK's pioneering dance company BalletBoyz in association with dancescreen, the festival is set to offer a unique opportunity to enjoy the best creative talent in dance and film to the general public, as well engaging broadcasters, video artists and choreographers. Over the three days, there are over 122 films screening with 11 World Premieres, 8 International, 4 European and 28 UK Premieres amongst the new work. These will be presented alongside classic films for all ages led by a celebration of Gene Kelly, dance performances and outdoor and family activities at various venues across the town.

Ros Morgan, Chief Executive of Kingston First says "Kingston First are delighted to be able to support not only a locally grown talent incubator but also have the opportunity to bring something unique and cultural to the streets of Kingston. The festival programme is really exciting and we're looking forward to welcoming new visitors to the town."

FILM SCREENINGS

Kingston is not only the base for BalletBoyz but was also the home of Eadweard Muybridge, the pioneering photographer. It is therefore highly appropriate that the festival's opening night film is Kyle Rideout's EADWEARD (2015), the evocative psychological drama about Muybridge, starring Michael Eklund (Watchmen), Sara Canning (The Vampire Diaries), Christopher Heyerdahl (True Blood), Charlie Carrick (The Borgias) and Torrance Combs (The Tudors).

The contribution of British filmmaking to musicals over the last 40 years is provided by Alan Parker's Oscar-winning FAME (1980), starring Irene Cara, alongside Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini's STREETDANCE (2010), the UK's box office smash which energetically brings ballet and street dance together, as well as featuring Britain's Got Talent winner, the dance troupe Diversity; and DESERT DANCER (2014), Richard Raymond's recent biopic of Iranian dancer Afshin Ghaffarian, starring Reece Ritchie and Freida Pinto.

FRAME pays tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood with a celebration of one of its greatest dance stars, Gene Kelly. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) is screened alongside the rarely seen INVITATION TO THE DANCE (1956), which features Kelly in three stories, all told without words, performing three very different dance routines, and THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! (1974), a joyous compilation of memorable moments from MGM musicals featuring Kelly, Fred Astaire, Liza Minnelli and Mickey Rooney amongst others.

Hollywood's musical past continues with Lloyd Bacon's 1933 Oscar-nominated version of 42nd STREET starring Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels and Ruby Keeler that features choreography from the legendary Busby Berkeley. As a special 90th birthday celebration of Her Majesty the Queen is shown Stanley Donen's ROYAL WEDDING (1951) bringing together Fred Astaire and Jane Powell in this lively MGM musical about two American performers heading to Britain at the time of the royal wedding.

Families can tap dance amongst the penguins in George Miller's HAPPY FEET (2006) and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991) invites us all to be their guests in this perennially popular Disney favourite.

Performance features are represented by SEA WITHOUT SHORE (2015), André Semenza and Fernanda Lippi's haunting tale of a woman who is drawn into the depths of her subconscious in search of her vanquished female lover, and Emelie Mahdavian's AFTER THE CURTAIN (2015), where four female dancers battle cultural norms and face increasing disfavour in the post-Soviet era.

PUBLIC AND COMMUNITY EVENTS

FRAME has created a wide-ranging series of talks and activities to complement the screenings, designed to stimulate interest and insight into the diverse ways in which dance can be presented on film.

Dance for the Camera originally commissioned short films for broadcast during 1990s and 00s. A collaborative process between director, composer and choreographer, this offers a case study on commissioning and producing work for TV. The festival, in association with BFI, presents a retrospective selection of films from this acclaimed series.

Music videos have become a fertile creative outlet for imagination and innovation giving filmmakers a chance to develop their skills. Filmmakers discuss their careers and screen examples of their work which includes THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS - WIDE OPEN.

For the last four years Channel 4 has been commissioning Big Dance Shorts showcasing exciting collaborations in choreography and directing. A special free event highlights a selection of the films from 2012 and 2014 including, Gabriela Alcofra and Billy Cowie's TANGO BRASILEIRO (Brazil, 2014) and Jessica Morgan and Morgann Runacre-Temple's THE TRY OUT (UK, 2013), and previews 2016 line up. A Q&A will be held with attending filmmakers.

Big Dance also contributes to the community activities with the Big Dance Bus, the touring mobile dance experience that travels to quirky places across the UK. The double-decker is parking in the centre of Kingston and is set to get everyone dancing in the streets, encouraging people young and old to try a whole range of dance styles from waltz to ballet and tango.

Making Tracks is a dynamically different live performance event that is devised between Kingston University, Whirlygig Cinema and the Cabinet of Living Cinema. Opening with the screening of pre-selected dance films that are accompanied by a live score from The Cabinet of Living Cinema musicians, it is followed by the world premiere of a bold new cinematic performance piece that is a collaboration between graduating students from Kingston University's Dance and Moving Image Courses, Whirlygig and Cabinet of Living Cinema, devised, produced and created especially for FRAME.

INDUSTRY EVENTS

FRAME: The London Dance Film Festival will also present a broad variety of industry experts participating in panel discussions and workshops, covering areas such as funding distribution over three days. Based in Kingston's Rose Theatre, the sessions include panels on Funding and Finance, Distribution and Exhibition. International broadcasters discuss the commissioning process whilst issues around commercial production are discussed by leading creators of commercial dance film, showcasing their work.

Filmmakers are invited to develop their art of pitching in a special seminar held in association with London Film Academy and to enter the dancescreen pitch competition (until 9th May) to win the chance to pitch in front of a panel of dancescreen judges.

Practical advice from funding to crew is offered in a seminar on producing dance films, with support from Dancers Pro whilst issues around licensing and music rights are discussed in a panel supported by Rogo Scott Music.

Networking sessions will offer opportunities to meet industry professionals from around the world. These include a curators and programmers panel supported by the British Council and a choreographers panel supported by One Dance UK; Underwire Festival and FLAMIN' London, Film London's Artists' Moving Image Network bring together directors to discuss their work and a 1-2-1 speed networking session, supported by Creative Skillset, will provide direct contact to professionals working across dance and film.

UK interdisciplinary politically charged and socially engaged performance artist Oreet Ashery offers a masterclass on Saturday on her web series, REVISITING GENESIS, which explores the processes of dying, exploring notions of friendships, outside communities and reincarnation of women artists. This event, in association with the Kingston University's Stanley Picker Gallery, is chaired by David Faulkner and will premiere the final film in the ground-breaking series.

DANCESCREEN COMPETITION AND AWARDS

Launched in 1988 and administered by IMF International Music in Austria, the dancescreen competition offers a bi-annual platform for international dance films with awards chosen by a specially selected jury of professionals across the fields of film, TV, dance, and video. With four competitive categories and nine awards, pre-selection panels and juries will be considering originality, communication and direction. The competitive categories are: Live performance relay and camera re-work; Animation; Documentary; Screen choreography with awards going to films of up to 5 minutes, 15 minutes, over 15 minutes respectively.
Three awards have cash prizes and these are:

• dancescreen Award for Best Film (Prize £1,000) which will be presented by a jury panel of international film, video and dance experts for the best overall film from all entries
• dancescreen Award for Best Student Film (Prize £500)
• FRAME Muybridge Award for Technical Innovation (The Muybridge Award) (Prize: £1,000) with work from all categories eligible.

A number of features being screened are eligible for the dancescreen award for best documentary. These are the European premiere of Olivia Peniston-Bird's GRACEFUL GIRLS (2015) which looks at Calisthenics, Australia's unique and physically demanding dance sport; Richard Curson-Smith's RUDOLF NUREYEV DANCE TO FREEDOM (2015) a recreation of the Russian dancers' defection to the West; Horacio Alacala's GRAZING THE SKY (2014), a revealing Spanish film about the physical exploits of circus acrobats; and BEING KRISTINA (2015), a visual dance explosion expressing the story of the Young Queen Kristine inheriting the Swedish Crown with choreography led by renowned Hans Marklund.

The features in contention for the Live Performance Award include the UK premiere of Jeff Tudor's A SWAN LAKE (2014), a staging of the world's most famous ballet wittily choreographed by Alexander Ekman; Thomas Grimm's JULIET & ROMEO (2013) the world's greatest love story told the other way round featuring the work of Swedish choreographer Mats Ek; and ATVAKHABAR RHAPSODIES (2015), Vincent Massip's interpretation of the futuristic ballet with a kaleidoscope of visuals and sound effects.

The shortlisted films have been selected from hundreds of submissions. Ten UK filmmakers are competing alongside European filmmakers from France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Ireland, Germany and Hungary, as well as countries such as USA, Chile, Canada, Australia and China. The full list of competing films are attached below.

The judging panel for the dancescreen awards includes Jan Younghusband (Head of Commissioning, Music & Events TV, BBC), Dieter Schneider (Commissioning Editor Theater & Music, ZDF/ Arte), Alistair Spalding (Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Sadler's Wells Theatre, London), Pegah Farahmand (Editor Random Acts, Channel4) and Judy Flannery (Executive Director, San Francisco Dance Film Festival).

All screenings take place at Rose Theatre, Odeon Cinema, Bentall's Store and Wow Café. The dancescreen competition winners are announced at the closing night award ceremony on Sunday 12 June which is followed by a special live performance by BalletBoyz featuring audience favourites from their repertoire including FICTION by Javier de Frutos from their latest show LIFE.

Accreditation is now open to industry delegates either for single days or the whole festival.Full details can be found here: http://bit.ly/FRAME-Festival-Accreditation

Tickets are on sale from 9th May:
FRAME Film Festival - www.framefilmfestival.com
Rose Theatre, 24-26 High St, Kingston Upon Thames, London KT1 1HL
www.rosetheatrekingston.org 020 8174 0090 (Mon-Sat, 10am-8pm, 6pm on non-performance days)

www.framefilmfestival.com
Twitter: @framefilmfest
Facebook: #FRAMETheLondonDanceFilmFestival

For further information and press enquiries contact Maisie Lawrence
maisie@thecornershoppr.com / 020 7831 7657

ENDS

Notes to Editors

About FRAME

FRAME: The London Dance Film Festival takes place 9th to 12th June 2016 offering an opportunity for creative talent in the arts, dance and film worlds to share experience, show work, learn from other artists and enjoy the best that dance and dance film offers. FRAME Film Festival's Artistic directors are Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, with Joe Bateman as Festival Director. Festival patrons are Lynda la Plante, OBE and Darcey Bussell, DB

About BalletBoyz

Michael Nunn OBE and William Trevitt OBE, Founders and Artistic Directors of BalletBoyz met when they were dancers with the Royal Ballet; during their 12 years with the company they danced all the principal male roles in Romeo & Juliet, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Mayerling and many more and created roles for choreographers Kenneth MacMillan, Twyla Tharp, David Bintley, Christopher Wheeldon and more. They co-founded BalletBoyz in 2001 and immediately made a huge impact on the dance scene creating the TV documentaries BalletBoyz and BalletBoyz II and curating the 4Dance season for Channel 4. Since then BalletBoyz has become one of the UK's leading dance companies making exciting, entertaining, award-winning art for stage and screen. The company tours nationally and internationally; their increasing number of awards include the Olivier for 'Broken Fall' (2004), the Rose d'Or and International Emmy ('Strictly Bolshoi' 2007), Golden Prague Grand Prix (BalletBoyz: The Rite of Spring 2010), and the 2013 Critics' Circle National Dance Award for Best Independent Company. BalletBoyz have pioneered the use of film and technology in performance and in 2016 will be the first dance company to release a full length feature film.

About dancescreen

First launched in 1988, dancescreen is now one of the world's leading international dance film festivals, competitions and conferences. Each dancescreen edition has partnered with an existing dance film festival in the US, UK or Europe, with the aim of maximising local and international attendance, widening people's perceptions of what dance on screen can be, and developing new audiences. The festival offers the dancescreen competition alongside an eclectic programme of film screenings, panels and pitching sessions and facilitates networking between directors, choreographers and potential buyers including broadcasters, festival curators and media or art institutions from all over the world.

In the mid-1980s IMZ recognised that there was a need to create a platform that would showcase a new genre and promote it to TV makers and programmers. With the support of broadcasters - from TV producers, commissioning editors and programme buyers - the first dancescreen was created as a forum for discussion, production and promotion. The festival immediately became a flagship for dance film and video activity. International dance film co-productions between broadcasting organisations such as the BBC and NHK are just one of the legacies of the initiative. Since its foundation the festival has been a vehicle to engage and inspire filmmakers, dance and video artists, distributors and broadcasters.

Previous dancescreen festivals have taken place inter alia in San Francisco (in cooperation with San Francisco Dance Film Festival 2013), in Amsterdam (in cooperation with Cinedans 2010), in Den Haag (in cooperation with the Holland Dance Festival, Filmhuis Den Haag 2007), in Brighton (2005), in Monaco at the Monaco Dance Forum (2002) and in Cologne at the Media Park (1999).