Light Moves will incorporate short films, feature length films, family screenings, at various locations in the city.
by Eric FitzGerald
[email protected]
LIMERICK CITY will host Ireland’s first festival with a focus on Screendance and dance on film this week. The festival called Light Moves will incorporate short films, feature length films, family screenings, at various locations in the city, at Dance Limerick based at St. John’s Church, 69 O’Connell Street and at the University of Limerick.
Light Moves brings together national and international directors, performers, choreographers, composers, writers and cinematographers through a series of workshops and presentations.
Maeve Butler of Dance Limerick told Limerick Post that this festival is a coup for the city.
“This is the first festival in Ireland dedicated to dance on film. We’re getting a huge reaction to the programme, people in the sector are really impressed with the quality of what’s on offer.”
Light Moves takes place from Thursday November 6 to Sunday November 9 and features over 60 works from 18 countries. The festival programme includes short films, installations and documentaries selected from an Open Call, in addition to a series of curated films designed to entertain, provoke and invite discussion.
Light Moves is curated and directed by Mary Wycherley and Jürgen Simpson in collaboration with Dance Limerick and DMARC (Digital Media Art Research Centre, University of Limerick).
Jürgen Simpson co-curated the festival. He is a composer, performer and lecturer, and director of DMARC) at UL.
Jürgen defined Screendance for Limerick Post this week.
“ScreenDance is films/ videos which deal with movement as their central focus. Instead of dialogue being the central focus, Screendance is about what movement can bring to play.”
While many of the works at the festival were made in the last two years, Screendance does also hark back to the silent era of movies, Charlie Chaplin being a prime example of someone who entertained millions with his movement on screen.
Light Moves is a Limerick City of Culture legacy project which has cost €45,000 to host. €37,000 of that cost has come from City of Culture funds, according to the organisers, and by showcasing Limerick City as the perfect location, it is hoped that the festival will become an annual event.
Jürgen says that the potential that Limerick City of Culture has afforded the organisers is the ability to create a festival that aims to have an international audience.
“We want to create a festival which would not speak to just a national level but also engage at an international level. That requires us to know what the international standard is and what we are up against. If you don’t create a festival that speaks to international audiences then you don’t get international audiences. We have a lot of people coming to Limerick for the festival from Colombia, South America, Australia and North America which hopefully will play into their knowledge of the city.”
For Jürgen the task of choosing what to include in the festival was onerous. 140 films were submitted through the Open Call. The curators eventually chose 60 films from 18 different countries. “There were lots of Irish entrants. We had to make hard choices because of the quality of the submissions.”
Jürgen says that Limerick has excellent facilities for music and screendance production from both within the university and in the city itself. He cites the recent Pigtown Fling project as a good example of how Limerick can provide a forum for creative projects to develop.
The upcoming Light Moves Festival has benefited from the “very special infrastructure between Dance Limerick, The Irish World Music Academy, University of Limerick and DMARC, collaborators essential in making The Light Moves Festival an ongoing event.”
Light Moves Festival of Screendance happens from Thursday November 6 to Sunday 9.
Tickets for screenings are €7 (€5 concession) and a Full Festival Pass costs just €60 (€45 concession). Look to website www.lightmoves.ie for full programme.
by Eric FitzGerald
[email protected]
LIMERICK CITY will host Ireland’s first festival with a focus on Screendance and dance on film this week. The festival called Light Moves will incorporate short films, feature length films, family screenings, at various locations in the city, at Dance Limerick based at St. John’s Church, 69 O’Connell Street and at the University of Limerick.
Light Moves brings together national and international directors, performers, choreographers, composers, writers and cinematographers through a series of workshops and presentations.
Maeve Butler of Dance Limerick told Limerick Post that this festival is a coup for the city.
“This is the first festival in Ireland dedicated to dance on film. We’re getting a huge reaction to the programme, people in the sector are really impressed with the quality of what’s on offer.”
Light Moves takes place from Thursday November 6 to Sunday November 9 and features over 60 works from 18 countries. The festival programme includes short films, installations and documentaries selected from an Open Call, in addition to a series of curated films designed to entertain, provoke and invite discussion.
Light Moves is curated and directed by Mary Wycherley and Jürgen Simpson in collaboration with Dance Limerick and DMARC (Digital Media Art Research Centre, University of Limerick).
Jürgen Simpson co-curated the festival. He is a composer, performer and lecturer, and director of DMARC) at UL.
Jürgen defined Screendance for Limerick Post this week.
“ScreenDance is films/ videos which deal with movement as their central focus. Instead of dialogue being the central focus, Screendance is about what movement can bring to play.”
While many of the works at the festival were made in the last two years, Screendance does also hark back to the silent era of movies, Charlie Chaplin being a prime example of someone who entertained millions with his movement on screen.
Light Moves is a Limerick City of Culture legacy project which has cost €45,000 to host. €37,000 of that cost has come from City of Culture funds, according to the organisers, and by showcasing Limerick City as the perfect location, it is hoped that the festival will become an annual event.
Jürgen says that the potential that Limerick City of Culture has afforded the organisers is the ability to create a festival that aims to have an international audience.
“We want to create a festival which would not speak to just a national level but also engage at an international level. That requires us to know what the international standard is and what we are up against. If you don’t create a festival that speaks to international audiences then you don’t get international audiences. We have a lot of people coming to Limerick for the festival from Colombia, South America, Australia and North America which hopefully will play into their knowledge of the city.”
For Jürgen the task of choosing what to include in the festival was onerous. 140 films were submitted through the Open Call. The curators eventually chose 60 films from 18 different countries. “There were lots of Irish entrants. We had to make hard choices because of the quality of the submissions.”
Jürgen says that Limerick has excellent facilities for music and screendance production from both within the university and in the city itself. He cites the recent Pigtown Fling project as a good example of how Limerick can provide a forum for creative projects to develop.
The upcoming Light Moves Festival has benefited from the “very special infrastructure between Dance Limerick, The Irish World Music Academy, University of Limerick and DMARC, collaborators essential in making The Light Moves Festival an ongoing event.”
Light Moves Festival of Screendance happens from Thursday November 6 to Sunday 9.
Tickets for screenings are €7 (€5 concession) and a Full Festival Pass costs just €60 (€45 concession). Look to website www.lightmoves.ie for full programme.
Light Moves Recommended
Screen Shorts
Over the four days of the festival at Dance Limerick and 69 O’Connell Street, there will be screenings of short dance films selected from the international Open Call for screendance works.
Nation For Two from The Netherlands tells the story of a, “subterranean journey of a man and a woman, tunnelling their way towards each other, leaving threads of autobiography wherever they pass.”
Globe Trot choreographed by Bebe Miller, is a truly international project made by 50 filmmakers on all seven continents, each shooting two seconds of dance.
www.lightmoves.ie for a full list of the nightly screenings.
Fantasia
Fun for the kids is the screening of ‘Fantasia’, the classic Disney animated film recorded with Philadelphia Orchestra in 1940. (69 O’Connell Street at 1pm Saturday 8). ‘Mad Hot Ballroom’ looks inside the lives of 11 year-old New York City public school kids who journey into the world of ballroom dancing (Dance Limerick, John’s Square from 3.30pm)
Russian Ark
Filmmaker Alexander Sokurov made the groundbreaking ‘Russian Ark’ by filming the 96 minute film in one take. It’s the first feature-length narrative film shot in a single take and shot from the point-of-view of an unseen narrator. The cast and crew rehearsed for months to time their movements precisely.
(8pm 69 O’Connell St, Saturday November 8)
Playtime
Directed by Jacques Tati, the comic ballet from 1967 follows the clumsy Monsieur Hulot as he tries to reconcile his old fashioned in a modernist Paris. This will be the Irish premiere of the film’s restored digital version. (7pm 69 O’Connell St, Friday November 7)
