4th VideoDance festival takes a look at politics
At the junction where visual and performing arts meet, VideoDance, a festival focusing on films based on dance, will be staged for the fourth consecutive year by the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the event’s organizer, in both Athens and Thessaloniki beginning tomorrow. The films to be screened at this year’s festival carry a distinctly political flavor, while emphasis remains on presenting the latest trends in modern dance, as well as experimentation in movement, imagery, technology and new mediums. VideoDance opens in Athens tomorrow (running to September 20), at the «bios» venue (84 Pireos), before moving north to Thessaloniki for a second showing at the city’s Film Museum between September 19 and 25. «Political Body,» one of the festival’s main sections, will present work by artists employing the language of film, the visual arts, as well as body language as means of adopting positions on sociopolitical issues. Overall, the work to be presented conveys the personal opinions of artists, suggests intervention in timely issues, and expresses desires. The festival’s «Memory-Body-Visuals» section deals with memory as the basis for responsible action in the world. Also included on the agenda is a tribute to the experimental filmmaker Maya Deren (1917-1961), whose entire body of work will be presented in Greece for the first time. Deren, an artist of legendary proportions in US avant-garde artistic circles during the 1940s and 1950s, is widely considered the founder of experimental American film. The festival will also feature musical events, mainly improvised electronic music. In Athens, a performance dubbed «Corre-spondances,» will feature visual imagery shot on Super 8 film with music from Lo-Fi, a leading Athens-based DJ.
