Portrait of A Dancer

Doreen

January 2024 •English

A heartfelt look at the life of a wonderful person and the legacy she has left behind, looking into her love, patience, kindness and the grief of her passing.

Ella

July 2016 •English

Ella Havelka made history in 2013 by becoming the first Indigenous dancer at the 50-year-old Australian Ballet. In this engaging, MIFF Premiere Fund-supported world premiere, Ella – a descendant of the Wiradjuri people – charts her inspiring journey from growing up in modest circumstances as the only child of a single mother in rural Australia to gaining entry to National Ballet School, then spending formative years with the acclaimed Bangarra Dance Theatre before accepting the invitation of The Australian Ballet's artistic director David McAllister to join one of the world's foremost ballet companies.

Drifting.

January 2024 •English

The story of a normal water bottle living the average day to day life when suddenly tragedy strikes and he isn’t anymore, but what is it that remains of him? Has anything even changed in his absence? Does anyone notice the water bottle is gone?

Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra

February 2021 •English

Taking us through Bangarra Dance Theatre’s spectacular growth, we follow the story of how three young Aboriginal brothers — Stephen, David and Russell Page — turned the newly born dance group into a First Nations cultural powerhouse.

Flamenco at 5:15

January 1983 •English

In this Oscar Winning documentary short film, students in their final year at the National Ballet School of Canada are seen learning the flamenco from Susana and Antonio Robledo, who come to the school every winter to conduct classes which are held after the day's regular schedule has ended.

Joan Baez: I Am a Noise

October 2023 •English

Since her debut at the age of 18, musician, civil rights campaigner and activist Joan Baez has been on stage for over 60 years. For the now 82-year-old, the personal has always been political, and her friendship with Martin Luther King and her pacifism have shaped her commitment. In this biography that opens with her farewell tour, Baez takes stock in an unsparing fashion and confronts sometimes painful memories.

Picture Proof

March 2023 •English

Examines the intergenerational impact of addiction by chronicling the love, labor, loss, and uncertainty of one woman’s struggle to live a life of sobriety. Weaving together moments of glee, fulfillment, acceptance, sorrow, and disappointment, this documentary takes an intimate look at the bonds that hold one family together and a disease that threatens to tear them apart.

Nathalie: The first and last prom

January 2024 •Spanish

Christine attends her first and last prom accompanied by Martin Fredericksen

Dance of the Little Swans: Vaganova Academy Auditions Young Dancers

June 2016 •English

Many young girls dream of becoming ballerinas, but only very few are prepared to apply the all-out effort and make the sacrifices that this dream demands. The famous Vaganova Ballet Academy in St.Petersburg welcomes the most talented and determined young dancers, but it makes them no promises. RT Doc meets some of the young hopefuls storming the doors of the famous Academy to find out more about the dream they share, and to follow them on their first steps towards achieving it.

Euthanasie, la mort sur ordonnance

November 2021 •French

Alternate Spaces

December 2022 •English

A short documentary on the River Ouse, following it downstream from Lewes to Newhaven, meditating on the surrounding area.

Whose Utopia

July 2006 •Chinese

A three-part film by Cao Fei. Part one, 'Imagination of Product', shows workers and machines at the OSRAM lightbulb factory in China's Pearl River Delta. In the second part, 'Factory Fairytale', dancers and musicians appear in the factory, as work continues around them. Finally, 'My Future is Not a Dream' consists of portraits of the factory workers facing Fei's camera.

Rize

January 2005 •English

A documentary film that highlights two street derived dance styles, Clowning and Krumping, that came out of the low income neighborhoods of L.A.. Director David LaChapelle interviews each dance crew about how their unique dances evolved. A new and positive activity away from the drugs, guns, and gangs that ruled their neighborhood. A raw film about a growing sub-culture movements in America.

Danser sa peine

January 2019 •French

Slow, une histoire d'amour

January 2024 •French

Brotherly Dance

July 2004 •Serbian

Savo from Kikinda (Serbia) and his brother recall how they called communal service few years back to empty the septic tank in their backyard. As careless servicemen weren't coming for days, Savo staged his death by drowning in the hole. Communal service sent three trucks while Savo was looking at them from the attic. A story of a small man who fought the system and won, only to become a huge YouTube hero afterwards.

Jan Fedder - mit Ecken, Kanten und ganz viel Herz

January 2020 •German

Wallachian Dance

September 1905 •Macedonian

Early Balkan footage.

TB: Return of the Plague

March 2014 •English

TB is the most deadly infectious disease in history - it has killed over a billion people in the last 200 years. Multi-BAFTA winning film-maker, Jezza Neumann travelled to Swaziland to make this very intimate account of the crippling effects of MDR-TB. We witness victims from two families battle with the disease over the course of a year.

Memories of Nijinsky

August 1980 •Russian

A valuable testimony that approaches the essence of Nijinsky who did not leave a video. Boris Kochno, who was at the center of Russian ballet, vividly tells how Nijinsky, who had fallen ill, witnessed his newly choreographed self-made work. Nijinsky's successor machine is a rare record of transferring Nijinsky's appearance in the popular work "Afternoon of a Faun" to two great dancers, Grigorowich and Wasiriev, who carry Bolshoi ballet on their backs.