The Broad Stage and Dance Camera West have announced the winners of the Dance Camera West Drive-In, Best of the Festival. The Outstanding Achievement Award winners are Henrique Pina (for Beast and Dusk) and
Adi Halfin (for Earth Odyssey and Lost Horse). The Best of the Fest Award winners are Robbie Synge (for Forest Floor) and Garry Stewart (for The Circadian Cycle). Additionally, Hofesh Shechter was awarded the Best Screen Adaptation Award (for Clowns), screened earlier in the festival, and Finishing Fund Grants have been awarded to the following Los Angeles-based artists: Marquesa Gardner and Austyn Rich. The Finishing Fund Grant is an initiative to financially support films from underrepresented artists and to complete films already in production, which premiere at a later date.
The Best of Fest and Outstanding Achievement Award films was presented by The Broad Stage in a unique drive-in experience showcasing the very best dance films from around the world on the big screen.
Directed by Adi Halfin of Germany, Earth Odyssey was made by dancers from different continents filming themselves in their confinement with their personal phones and computers. It was made in the first week of April 2020 while almost 2 billion people around the globe were unable to move freely due to the restrictions imposed in an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Following Earth Odyssey, Halfin's vision for Lost Horse was another creative solution for a period where it is virtually impossible to create international collaborations due to the restrictions as a result of the global pandemic. The director decided to go with the flow and have the dancers film themselves. Mixing their dance into a documentation of their personal life. Armed with their own camera, modern dance power-couple Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber set about documenting their intimate daily lives in a new genre of "Musical" style documentary. Mixing improvised choreography driven by their immediate emotions with the relentless, never-stopping rolling of the camera, the two created an abundance of scenes reflecting the many aspects of a relationship full of multitudes. A life full of beginnings and endings coexisting in us all. The music featured in both films was written, composed and performed by Asaf Avidan.
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