Directed by Erin Buelow

Logline: A flock of nymphs herald the arrival of spring.

Synopsis: Rendered in grainy, black and white images, the Alseides explore their hazy surroundings through dance, bringing to life an environment composed of stylized but lush greenery.

Distribution Contact: WFG

More Details

RUNTIME: 7 Minutes
GENRE: Experimental
PRODUCTION FORMAT: 16mm, HD
LANGUAGE: English
LOCATION: Manitoba
TECHNIQUES: Hand Process (b&w), Visual Effects, Digital Filters
KEYWORDS: Women, Nova Dance, Dream, Nature, Mythology

Director's Statement: “Birth of the Alseides initially came together as an improvisation. There was little more intention than to create a piece for some friends who had just started their own modern dance collective, Nova Dance. But soon after gathering at our shooting location "“ a near-empty downtown parking lot at night "“ the form of the piece started to come through.

Working with the women to incorporate their surroundings into the performance, I became interested in blending graceful yet unnatural human movements into an ambiguously natural setting.

After hand developing the stock, I could see that there were large parts of the frame without an image "“ the high-contrast film stock I'd used concealed all but the highly-lit dancers.

I then shot digital footage of my mother's garden that I superimposed over the dancers.

Erratic scratches on the black and white footage bring one's attention to the employed medium, film, thus I decided to emphasize the angularity of the digital footage by adding filters that increased the visual noise.

In its final incarnation the film portrays not only the celebratory dance of the Alseides, but also a sort of dance between the mediums of film and video."