AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
FILM
OCEAN (USA)
FILM
Hail the New
Puritan (USA/UK)
Dir. Charles Atlas
Dir. Charles Atlas
One of the final dance productions of legendary choreographer
Merce Cunningham is lovingly captured by the lens of
Charles Atlas.
In September 2008, Merce Cunningham, surely the most esteemed
choreographer of his generation, staged a season of Ocean, one of
the final works he would live to see performed. An audacious, epic
performance set in the striking surrounds of Minnesota’s Rainbow
Granite Quarry and backed by more than 150 musicians, it was a
fitting swansong to a career that redefined modern dance.
On hand was long-time collaborator and friend Charles Atlas, who
documented this monumental occasion. Capturing the essential
grandeur and passion of these unique performances, Atlas has created
an intimate final farewell to the singular, magisterial Cunningham.
100min, 2011, 15+
ACMI – Sun 14 Oct at 2pm
Image Charles Atlas. Ocean, detail, 2008–2011. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
FILM
This defining work from Charles Atlas, the acclaimed father
of dance film, is a heady mix of sly humour, riveting dance and
audacious eroticism set against the sprawling energy of 80s
London’s post-punk scene.
Tracking a day in the life of legendary Scottish choreographer
Michael Clark, then 23, Atlas shot the film as a tongue-in-cheek
mockumentary, following the flamboyant Clark as he and his
company prepare for a performance of The New Puritans.
Backed by a raucous soundtrack from The Fall, Hail the New Puritan is
character portrait turned fantasy voyage, a strange sideways glimpse
into the mind of a man who defined the choreographic extravagances
of a newly decadent London.
85min, 1986, 18+
ACMI – Sat 13 Oct at 1.30pm
Image Charles Atlas. Hail the New Puritan, detail, 1985–86. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix
(EAI), New York
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Turning
(Denmark/USA)
(USA)
Dir. Charles Atlas
A collaboration between special Festival guest Antony
(Antony and the Johnsons) and video artist Charles Atlas,
TURNING is a spellbinding opus on the nature of beauty
and alienation.
In 2006, enigmatic singer Antony teamed up with legendary dance
filmmaker Charles Atlas to create a new concert series. An audiovisual investigation into gender and beauty, TURNING drew together
Antony’s soaring music, Atlas’s transformative visuals and the life
stories of 13 New York women.
Bold and uplifting, this film shines a light on Antony and Atlas’s
unique relationship and collaboration during their European tour.
Part documentary, part artwork, part concert film, TURNING records
a utopian dream of femininity from the New York underground.
93min, 2012, 18+
ACMI – Tue 16 Oct at 7.30pm, including post-screening Q&A
with Antony and guests
Greater Union – Sat 20 Oct at 8pm
FILM
A Good Man
Dir. Bob Hercules
& Gordon Quinn
Bill T. Jones has spent a career at the vanguard of politics and
dance, often using his choreographic talents to explore issues of
race and sexual orientation.
A Good Man tracks Jones through the exhilaration and frustration of
developing his major 2009 dance-theatre piece Fondly Do We Hope…
Fervently Do We Pray, a reflection on the legacies of his childhood
hero, Abraham Lincoln.
Bob Hercules and Gordon Quinn’s documentary reveals the
charismatic Bill T. Jones as a man divided, torn between the promise
of the civil rights movement – the revolutionary force that drove his
early art – and the pragmatics and inequalities of the modern age.
86min, 2011, 15+
ACMI – Sat 13 Oct at 4.30pm
Greater Union – Fri 19 Oct at 7pm
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