Dance on Film: BBC Introducing Arts (2020)

Daybreak Express

Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.

Carne

After a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, a butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.

Tree House

All summer long, four teenagers gather illegally in a military zone to build a hut. But school will soon begin again and the golden days of cabin-building are coming to an end.

Gulis

A story about a dysfunctional father and son who are still coping with a loss, the other with a highly-stigmatized illness who are compelled to talk to one another to make ends meet and heal the wounds of their relationship.

Against the Tide

A remote and wild island on the west coast of Scotland is home to a small group of people that live in deep connection with the land, the sea and the weather. For different reasons, they left their city life to escape their inner demons and to live as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible.

Fish Out of Water

Fish Out of Water manages to unfurl its light-hearted tale of young man and the sea, without a word of dialogue. Avoiding the morning traffic jams, our man (Nick Dunbar) finds peace by rowing each day to work in the city. But when a seductive blonde unexpectedly enters the picture, he finds his morning boat ride heading in unexpected directions. Directed by Lala Rolls (Land of My Ancestors), Fish Out of Water was invited to play in the 2005 NZ Film Festival, plus another 10 overseas fests. Victoria Kelly composes the brass and banjo-inflected soundtrack.

Automatic

Two young women convince each other they are under threat after accidentally photographing what they believe to be a concealed automatic rifle. Shot in drawn-out, static takes, Emma Doxiadi’s comical mystery comments on Greece’s ongoing refugee crisis in real time, pointing squarely at foolish knee-jerk reactions.

Fili di memorie

Plot unavailable

Gay Jesus

Once upon a time in a cheap Jerusalem hotel room, Jesus and Judas are spending their time away from Nazareth between hot, sweaty, carnal love and preparing sermons for Jesus' growing fanbase. Enter Mary Magdalene, jealousy, Satan, and the Romans, and the once-perfect love affair between Judas and Jesus becomes a hellish ring of fire, leading Judas to betray his beloved Christ and the Romans to punish everyone for trying to turn everyone gay.

Step Up

Tyler Gage receives the opportunity of a lifetime after vandalizing a performing arts school, gaining him the chance to earn a scholarship and dance with an up and coming dancer, Nora.

Miss Fortunate

If luck is a lady, grief is a bitch. A young woman loses her mother and finds herself.

Betty's Blues

The story begins in the basement of a worn-out blues bar in Louisiana in the 1980s. A few regular customers are having a drink. A guitarist gets on stage and everybody comments on the newcomer. The guitarist draws the attention of the audience by tapping the microphone. He introduces himself. He will tell them the true story of Blind Boogie Jones.

Stalker

A boy is haunted by his own thought, which takes physical form.

Details

Amelia falls in love with Dan, but she is fighting to escape a past that threatens to repeat itself. Can Amelia’s new relationship survive the hidden details?

Dying to Come Back

At 78 years old, Manuela buys a camera and AR glasses.

Madonna: Truth or Dare

From the rains of Japan, through threats of arrest for 'public indecency' in Canada, and a birthday tribute to her father in Detroit, this documentary follows Madonna on her 1990 'Blond Ambition' concert tour. Filmed in black and white, with the concert pieces in glittering MTV color, it is an intimate look at the work of the icon, from a prayer circle before each performance to bed games with the dance troupe afterwards.

Like A B1

In Seoul, a Korean girl is passing the French oral exam DELF. Yet the examiner’s questions lead her to speak unexpectedly about her difficult family story. With the stress, her low level of French gets worse, then unconsciously, she starts to express herself with gestures.

Lisbon

A broke queer man agrees to an intimate meeting with an older man for cash, only to be confronted with an unexpected and harrowing request that forces him to grapple with life, death, and his own morality.

Heartsaver

A young woman is late for an important job interview when she notices a woman falling ill just as the train drives into the station.

God is Good

A short film exploring queerness, blackness and religion.

Pretty Boy

Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.

The Euthanizer

A black comedy about a man struggling to make a living by helping people kill themselves.

Cain Rose Up

Tells the story of Curt Garrish, a respected student who decides to take matters of cleansing the world into his own hands on the final day of the semester in 1975 in one unforgettable violent act.

Grill

Tara is denied electricity bill support by Social Services, who tells her to simply get a free grill instead - a task that leads Tara into uncomfortable situations. Inspired by true events, "Grill" offers a satirical look at how a rich country in Scandinavia deals with poverty.

Origini

Plot unavailable

€ (Euro) - un cortometraggio di Andrea Ventura

Plot unavailable

Anime

Two hardy orphans survive upon the remains of a humanity that has left them behind.

Rebel

Alex, a six-year-old boy from Quebec, is oblivious to the thousands of refugees entering Canada illegally to avoid deportation. Yet when his father takes him along to a vigilante patrol in the woods to hunt out trespassing migrants, something inside him tells him to rebel.

The Physics of Sorrow

Tracks an unknown man’s life as he sifts through memories of his youth in Bulgaria through to his increasingly rootless and melancholic adulthood in Canada.

Gameboy

Thijs, Tobias, Sjeng, and Tarik break into a house and steal a multitude of their school exams for profit. But in time, as their gain notoriety, the jig is up! But will all four go down, will there be consequences, and will that be all that happens to these rambunctious four young men?

Tribu

Ruben and Gio have been recently adopted by Evelyn and Memo. The four of them try to create a home where the past, the bad and good stories, and the dreams in common for the future blend all together.

Ioana

Young Romanian Adrian works as a hustler in Zurich's underground in order to get his sister Ioana out of Romania and to Zurich, where they can both have a better future.

Lazarus Come Out

45 year old Don Valter is a traditional priest who still wears an old fashioned black tunic out of nostalgia. One day young Claudio and his exuberant troupe of actors appear, proposing to perform an avant-garde show based on the Gospel's miracle of the rebirth of Lazarus*. The powerless priest is overwhelmed by this young upstart, who stirs within him emotions that will, whether he likes it or not, pull him into the modern era.

Laurita

Laura and her mother are spending their vacation on the seashore, in Sao Paulo, at a middle-class beach house. Laura's adolescent body is changing but not in harmony with her coming of age. She's less bothered by that than the situation the two of them find themselves in.

Lost Time

Anto travels to the depth of his most beloved memories with Julián. He must cross the threshold of the loss of a loved one.

Pop, Lock 'n Roll

Loaded with a love story and set in the club scene in Cape Town, it’s a feel good rags to riches film about Raps, a gifted young dancer from the Cape Flats who thinks all he needs is fame and money. However, it all gets complicated when he falls in love with the gorgeous young wife of the gangster-cum-producer who’s making his career happen.

Oops!

Jagan, Akash and Nisha belong to a dance club. Their ambition is to become big in the dancing profession. Jagan and Nisha are lovers. Jagan is a middle-class man who dreams of becoming a millionaire over night. In the process he meets an actress named Sonia who offers him a ridiculously large amount of money for a 3 hours strip tease show to be done among a group of ten high society women who are bored with their husbands. Jagan asks his best buddy Akash to accompany him in the job. That show becomes a big hit and Jagan gets another call from Sonia for another strip show. Akash, however, is not comfortable with that profession. Jagan does the solo strip tease. There he meets a sexy older women named Savitha who has a secret identity that will end up compromising Jagan's world. - Written by gavin

Paris Ficelle

Plot unavailable

Echoes

Strange entities begin to haunt a middle-aged man and his infant son in a remote cabin in the woods.