The Bucharest International Dance Film Festival’s 8th edition takes place September 8 to 11, with more than 25 cultural events dedicated to both the general audience and artists' communities, under the theme of (UN)SAFE ZONES.

"Every year at BIDFF we aim to address the pressing issues affecting our lives in so many ways. This year, it was not at all difficult to coalesce the festival’s events under the theme of (Un)safe Zones.

It's becoming increasingly apparent that we live in a state of maximum insecurity, a general state of mistrust brought on by disease, military conflict, and economic crisis.

Nationalist and discriminatory speeches have become more aggressive, and society is splitting into pro and anti-nationalist camps, losing the ability to coexist. In this landscape, the collective emotional crisis can no longer be ignored," says BIDFF Artistic Director Simona Deaconescu.

According to Deaconescu, the festival reacts to this troubling state of reality by offering viewers powerful films, "in which familiar issues are explored with intelligence and courage by artists from all continents".

This year, the festival is showing four feature films.

The film Joyland (2022, Pakistan), directed by Saim Sadiq, introduces us to the patriarchal world of the Rana family, whose stability is destroyed by the actions of their youngest son, who secretly joins an erotic dance club and falls in love with a trans starlet. It is a story from modern-day Pakistan about an impossible love, acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. Saim Sadiq's debut feature premiered this year at the Cannes Film Festival, and won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section.

Rookies (2022, France) is a documentary directed by Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai. In the heart of Paris, a prestigious high school makes a bold decision: to integrate students from poor neighborhoods and break the determinism of school failure through dance and hip-hop. "Here, we don't give in and we don't give up!" is the motto of the Turgot High School, where, through dance and movement, young people learn to transform their complicated life experiences into physical energy and growth. The film was shown at this year’s Berlinale in the Generation 14 plus section.

Moonage Daydream (2022, USA/Germany), directed by Brett Morgen, is considered by critics „a glorious eulogy and a genre-defying film” (The Guardian), „absolutely breathtaking, perhaps the best film ever made about an artist” (Vogue), „a hypnotic, audio-visual space odyssey” (The Telegraph). The film premiered at Cannes in May and has its Romanian premiere at the Bucharest International Dance Film Festival.

Finally, Neptune Frost (2021, France/ Rwanda/ USA), by Saul Williams and Rwandan-born filmmaker Anisia Uzeyman, is an Afro-futuristic vision of a love story between an intersex hacker and a coltan miner, as well as a fresco in music and movement about rebellion and reclaiming technology for progressive political purposes. Called „breathtaking” by Robert Ebert and „visionary” by Variety magazine, the film premiered at Cannes in 2021 and was featured at the New York, Toronto, and Sundance International Film Festivals.

In addition to the feature film premieres, the festival brings to Bucharest a series of short films, dance film workshops, film production workshops, conferences, public presentations, exhibitions, and more, included in the BIDFF SHORTS, BIDFF COMMUNITY, BIDFF VR, and BIDFF EXPAND sections.

"In 2022, through conferences and visual explorations, we can talk about how the choreography of the masses appears in moments of political and social crisis. The BIDFF team believes that, especially during this time, the need for culture needs to be considered and fed with artistic works that help us understand our own bodies. So we can look at unsafe areas not as conflict-generating, but as territories that generate discussion, through which we restore a necessary balance," says Simona Deaconescu.

Every year, as part of the EXPAND section, BIDFF brings dance filmmakers to Bucharest to hold intensive workshops dedicated to Romanian artists. In 2022, the founder of the award-winning UK dance film production company The Motion Dance Collective, Omari 'Motion' Carter will coordinate a dance film workshop, from September 9 to 11, at the National Dance Center in Bucharest. In the same section, the Center will host three other conferences by specialists, including Kélina Gotman with Choreomania: Scenes of Ecstasy and Revolt.

As in previous years, the festival is hosted by the French Institute (Cinema Elvire Popesco), the cinema of the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, the National Dance Center, the /SAC @ MALMAISON art gallery, and Grivița Factory, as well as three new locations: CINEMAX Veranda, Grădina cu Filme - Cinema and More, and the Amalia and Chief Rabbi Dr. Moses Rosen Residential Center for the Elderly.

The festival’s full program and ticket information are available on the official website.

maia@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: BIDFF)