Strange Genius (2011)

Why So Serious? II

Hello everyone, and welcome to the second edition of "Why so Serious?" MEP – the Polish version of AMV Hell, featuring only Polish creators. The project began in late August 2009, allowing both editors and scriptwriters to participate. In total, 35 Polish creators and 6 scriptwriters joined. After three months, I received 250 tracks, amounting to 1.5 hours of material. Like in the first edition, a special jury was selected to evaluate the clips. The jury consisted of AceMan, Szwagier, Crossfade, and Kosmit, chosen to ensure fair judgment. After their review, the number of tracks was reduced to 100, resulting in about 25 minutes of final material. The grand premiere of "Why so Serious II" took place on February 6, 2010, during the PAcon convention in Warsaw, attracting a large audience and receiving a standing ovation. Special thanks to Heero, Kosmit, AceMan, Szwagier, Crossfade, and Kaeth, and to all co-authors, without whom this project wouldn’t have been possible.

éclore

A tale about the search for new sensorial experiences and territories. It’s a teaching and learning experience through body exploration and manipulation: two strangers dance with their passion, desire, gestures and contact.

Breaking Brooklyn

A 12 year old boy with a passion for dance and his brother are rescued from the streets by an old showman who takes them to live with his estranged former dancing partner/brother.

Desert Dancer

Inspirational true story of Iranian dancer Afshin Ghaffarian, who risked his life for his dream to become a dancer despite a nationwide dancing ban.

Cats Don't Dance

An ambitious singing and dancing cat in 1939 Hollywood overcomes several obstacles to fulfill his dream of becoming a movie star.

Ghost Light by John Neumeier

The Hamburg Ballet was one of the first ballet companies internationally to return to its studios after the first lockdown. The ballet Ghost Light by John Neumeier deals with isolation and the feelings and fantasies an empty stage may evoke. Developed in fragments using small groups of dancers and under the constraints imposed by Covid-19, the choreography reflects situations, fears, relationships, memories, and emotions experienced during the pandemic.

Second Chorus

Danny O'Neill and Hank Taylor are rival trumpeters with the Perennials, a college band, and both men are still attending college by failing their exams seven years in a row. In the midst of a performance, Danny spies Ellen Miller who ends up being made band manager. Both men compete for her affections while trying to get the other one fired.

Narcissus

In this short film by Norman McLaren, dancers enact the Greek tragedy of Narcissus, the beautiful youth whose excessive self-love condemned him to a trapped existence. Skilfully merging film, dance and music, the film is a compendium of the techniques McLaren acquired over a lifetime of experimentation.

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.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Isolated bell-ringer Quasimodo wishes to leave Notre Dame tower against the wishes of Judge Claude Frollo, his stern guardian and Paris' strait-laced Minister of Justice. His first venture to the outside world finds him Esmeralda, a kind-hearted and fearless Romani woman who openly stands up to Frollo's tyranny.

Center Stage

A group of 12 teenagers from various backgrounds enroll at the American Ballet Academy in New York to make it as ballet dancers and each one deals with the problems and stress of training and getting ahead in the world of dance.

Campus Sleuth

A photographer is murdered just outside of where a college dance is being held. The body is discovered by Lee Watson, but promptly disappears, as it's whisked around the campus by an ex-con night watchman. However, he is not the killer, and Freddie, Betty, Dodie, and Lee set out to find the culprit, who managed to put a big damper on the big dance.

Top Hat

Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in Horace's hotel room, much to the annoyance of sleeping Dale Tremont below. She goes upstairs to complain and the two are immediately attracted to each other. Complications arise when Dale mistakes Jerry for Horace.

Appalachian Spring

A filmed version of Aaron Copland's most famous ballet, with its original star, who also choreographed.

Indak

This song-and-dance musical follows the journey of an island girl with a natural gift for dancing as she navigates through life in the city to follow her dreams and find love along the way.

Fame

A chronicle of the lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high school for students gifted in the performing arts.

In the Dance

Dance, friendship, group, beatbox, movement, hiphop, freestyle, cypher.

Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man

A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a man spins a large cube of metal tubing. He leaves his instinct-guides behind, and enters a garden where two statues dance in a pond. As he watches their sensual acrobatics of love, he becomes a man. He is offered wealth (represented by a golden hat) by a devil figure. In a richly decorated room, a scruffy troupe of a dozen acrobats and a little girl reawaken the old man's youthful nature and love.

Dance with Me

Young Cuban Rafael just buried his mother, and comes to Houston to meet his father John for the first time. The difficult part is that John doesn't know he is Rafael's father. John runs a dance studio, and everyone prepares for the World Open Dance championship in Las Vegas. It soon becomes clear Rafael is a very good dancer, and Ruby is the biggest hope for the studio at the championship.

Beat Street

An aspiring DJ, from the South Bronx, and his best friend, a promoter, try to get into show business by exposing people to hip-hop music and culture.

Woolf Works

The first revival of Wayne McGregor’s critically acclaimed ballet triptych to music by Max Richter, inspired by the works of Virginia Woolf.

Sleepover LA

An innocent tourist travels to LA and unexpectedly conjures her sister's last night alive. Bold score, stylized dance and an eccentric cast, shot at The Standard Hotel, weave a dark and luminous film that revamps traditional narrative.

Doug's 1st Movie

Doug and his pal Skeeter set's out to find the monster of Lucky Duck Lake. Though things get really out of hand when some one blurts out that the monster is real.

Liberty's Secret

The daughter of a preacher becomes the centerpiece for a conservative political campaign but finds herself falling in love with a woman.

Funny Face

A shy Greenwich Village book clerk is discovered by a fashion photographer and whisked off to Paris where she becomes a reluctant model.

Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses

King Randolph sends for his cousin, Duchess Rowena, to help turn his daughters, Princess Genevieve and her eleven sisters, into royal material. But the Duchess strips the sisters of their fun, including their favorite pastime: dancing. When all hope may be lost, the sisters discover a secret passageway to a magical land where they can dance the night away.

Take the Lead

A former professional dancer volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system and, while his background first clashes with his students' tastes, together they create a completely new style of dance. Based on the story of ballroom dancer, Pierre Dulane.

Jesus Christ Superstar

As played out by a theatre troupe, the last days of Jesus Christ are depicted from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, his betrayer. As Jesus' following increases, Judas begins to worry that Jesus is falling for his own hype, forgetting the principles of his teachings and growing too close to the prostitute Mary Magdalene.

Colombina Star y su baile del terror

Plot unavailable

ITU

ITU is a dark and surreal dance short film. Inspiration and new ideas fill the void of the mundane life and something new springs to life through the art of movement.

Bravetown

After an accidental drug overdose, a talented teenage DJ goes to live with his estranged father in a small Army town, where he gets to the bottom of his own pain and learns empathy for others.