New "dance film" Replica is released!
A friend and I had a good laugh about how words like "release" and "distribution" are terms that don't really apply to my little niche. True, I do hang on to a new work for a little while, submitting it to festivals but not sharing it widely until years later. And what would widely mean anyway, in this context? Internationally, which is a satisfaction, and at no expense. To strangers who I never see or hear from, which is ... well, anonymous. Or perhaps years later in person, in a retrospective, as I did in 2022 in my hometown, thanks to Rivertown Films. It was very gratifying to be in company with the audience who watched an all-Renzi program ranging from the 2006 Welcome Table to the 2023 Bronx Magic. If you missed the retrospective at the time, you can watch the post-screening conversation which I recently annotated with excerpts of the short films Laura Harrison and I talk about.
Now "released", Replica has been accepted in its first festival, Wildsound Feedback Film Festival. Not a typical film festival, here's what they offer: a private screening for a select group of people who go home after the festival and record their comments. WildSound then turns those comments into something they call a FEEDBACK Festival Video. Kinda cool, right? I'll try to remember to share that video with you here. In addition, about a month later, WildSound streams it on Festival TV - a kind of distribution, you could say.
Thinking about the timing of the so-called release, I looked back in these blogposts to see only rare mention of the process of making Replica.
October 22, 2023
What will I make next? I'm toying with producing something before the weather gets impossibly cold.
February 9, 2024
And there's footage in the can - ok, clips on the hard drive. Shot in December outdoors in Hyde Park, NY with long-time partners-in-crime dancer Robert Sorrentino and cinematographer Charles Caster-Dudzick. It's an odd premise - Rob's partner is an artist's mannequin - which I look forward to editing... as I recuperate from total knee replacement.
And so, approximately a year later, Replica is released upon the world. What took ya so long, you might ask. It's all of 5 minutes long, so that's not the issue. What I referred to as the odd premise gave me pause: the editing process took a ridiculously long time because I didn't know - still don't really - if the central character exists or not. Partly the director (yours truly) is to blame because she didn't give me enough options to edit with. On the other hand, considering she also produces, and is responsible for set & costume design, I guess she can be forgiven. Incidentally, the director/designer/etc also edited the music, which was generously given to me by long-time collaborator Emily Holden. She had made some spooky sketches she had no use for, and they turn out to be perfect for my purposes.
Another reason for the attenuated Replica timeline - from planning to creation to self-promotion - is that it has gotten a lot of rejections, especially from dance film fests. Fair enough: although Robert Sorrentino's acting is wonderful, there's very little of what other people call dancing, and his partner / mannequin is, well, rather wooden. However, the RIC Dance Company piece Inter Library Loan (trailer here) is glowing with youthful dancer/actors which means it's being accepted in dance film festivals all over. Win some, lose some.
Meanwhile, Guardians of the Flame is still alive and kicking, with screenings in Gary, Indiana; Chania, Greece and Houston, Texas.
And more soon about the process behind the second Renzi/Wolff collaboration: a documentary called Cathy & Harry which is having a lively fall season:
(screening with my 2018 dance film Where Love Leads!)
Please join us.
And if you're actually reading this, please leave a comment or shoot me an email. Do you click on the links? Am I repeating myself?
It gets kind of lonely here... it gets kind of lonely here ...
4 comments:
That’s my sister!
Read to the end and very proud of my dear friend Marta. See you in Millerton on Nov 2
Dear Anonymous, whichever of my dear friends this is, thank you!
I'm guessing this is MJ. I have a 50% chance of being right...
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