Frameform

That’s right, we are coming to a close to season 5 and the Frameform series. It’s been a wonderful 5 years of making this show, but as time evolves, so have our lives and workloads…so we’re putting a pin in it. Today we’re reflecting on a wonderful season of interviews and discussions while also looking back at the past 5 seasons of lively topics that we have covered. We’re having heart to hearts,...

Well, aside from our wrap up, it’s our final episode of Season 5. Today we’re having a bit of a full circle moment and revisiting a project we covered in our very first season. Listeners of Frameform may remember our interview with some of the team behind Uprooted: The Journey of Jazz Dance from Season 1.  This doc has had a long and successful festival run, earned countless awards, been available...

While the concepts of mass appeal and state of the art don’t always dance well together, today’s guest has proven that you can accomplish both.  If you’re a dancefilm enthusiast you’ve very likely to have seen Andrew Margetson’s films, which are quickly identified by their high caliber dance and flawless cinematography. If you’re a curator, you have likely included a few of them in your programmin...

This week’s episode of Frameform features three extraordinarily experienced artists-Kati Kallio, Maia Sorensen and Helena Jonsdottir- who wear many hats in the screendance field as filmmakers, curators, educators and more. Clare spoke with them about their work in screendance creation, curation and education and how it is informing the establishment of a nascent Nordic Screendance Network. The con...

Hello! We’re back from our summer recess which means we have more episodes to come for the rest of the 2024 year! For today’s episode, Hannah sits down with Austin, Texas filmmaker Maggie Bailey, discussing her 2022 dance documentary, Moving Together. This particular doc is something I myself (Hannah), have not seen in the dance documentary mode. What made this movie really stand out from others i...

Unless you have hit the screendance jackpot, it’s highly unlikely that you are a full-time screendance maker. Carving time out to create your own work can be a bit difficult and sometimes it’s intimidating to start. As Frameform goes into the summer break, we are offering creative prompts designed to help you practice creating dance films on a regular basis. These are not recipes for masterpieces,...

We love connecting with the people behind the scenes at festivals. In today’s episode, we speak with Nicole Spring of the Los Angeles Dance Film Festival. We talk all about how she started the LA Dance Shorts Film Festival - now known as Los Angeles Dance Film Festival - and how this project has evolved over the years. Nicole cares deeply about serving the community through these events and has pr...

Most theater-goers are familiar with black boxes. We’re not talking about literal boxes that are black but in a way it’s not totally off the mark. Walking inside a black box theater, it’s pretty bare and minimal – empty space, a place for an audience to sit, and maybe a few studio lights for dramatic lighting. These spaces may not have that grand sparkling feeling when you walk into a 200+ capacit...

Frameform is thrilled to collaborate with Cinedans on several episodes to commemorate the 20th edition of the Amsterdam-based festival which took place in late March 2024. Through its adventurous film programming along with its substantial professional development program, Cinedans has established itself as a destination event for anyone interested in dance film and welcomes artists from around th...

Frameform is thrilled to collaborate with Cinedans on several episodes to commemorate the 20th edition of the Amsterdam-based festival which took place in late March 2024. Through its adventurous film programming along with its substantial professional development program, Cinedans has established itself as a destination event for anyone interested in dance film and welcomes artists from around th...

Audiences can be strongly divided when it comes to musicals, and the same goes for superhero flicks. Are these “theme park movies” the “death of cinema” or are they just a product of the times? In this roundtable with special guest Steven Butler, we cover many facets of movie musicals, superhero franchise films, and how they reflect the circumstances in which they are made and viewed. Also: what i...

We're back with another season of dance and film! Be sure to download and listen to a brand new episode, on Wednesday March 15th!

That’s a wrap! We reflect, share some behind the scenes perspectives and celebrate all that is Season 4 of Frameform. Thank you to the festivals and organizations we partnered with: Dance Camera West, ADF’s Movies by Movers, Standard Vision, Dancinema’s Capitol Dance & Cinema Festival. We’ll be on tour again next season and in conversation with other festival curators, producers and featured dance...

Frameform was honored an invitation from Jennifer “Scully” Thurston (noted RogueDancer and current Artistic Director of ADF Movies by Movers)  to moderate Q&As following the shorts programs at a weekend of the summer-long dance film institution Movies by Movers at American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina in July of 2023. This panel moderated by Clare Schweitzer, Hannah Weber and Scully fe...

Sean Dorsey is a San Francisco-based choreographer, dancer, writer, teaching artist and cultural activist. Recognized as the U.S.’ first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer, Dorsey has toured his work to more than 30 cities across the US and abroad – and taught with his explicitly trans-positive pedagogy in more than 35 cities. In July 2023, Sean Dorsey Dance presented the North Carol...

Lighting plays a large role in cinematography. In one scenario, light is a tool to just visually see images. While in other cases, light sculpts the features in a space – illuminating the curvatures of people’s bodies, faces, sharp edges on buildings and furniture. Lack of light creates deep undertones such as darkness, evil, mystery, and secrecy while heightening other attributes to a film, like...

WARNING: Some explicit language is used in this episode. We recommend using headphones if you have sensitive or young ears around. In this next installment of our partnership with Capitol Dance & Cinema Festival this season, we are featuring “Ghostly Labor”, a hybrid dancefilm/documentary that has been a hit on the festival circuit, and for good reason! We learn about the integral phases of resear...

Today’s episode is part one of our “Dancine-Docs” series in collaboration with Dancinema, specifically the 2022 Capitol Dance & Cinema Festival in Washington, DC. We’re connecting with Mimmo Miccolis and Carola Mamberto on their dance and documentary works that celebrate Italian arts and culture.  First, we discuss the short documentary “Miccolis” which covers the story of how Mimmo grew from a bo...

We are back from a great summer break! Check out our Frameform Patreon page for 6 awesome resources we released over the past few months ranging from Technical Tips for Video Editing by Hannah, a visual guide to all things Frameform by Jen Ray, a Zine by Clare, and more. Today’s episode features two interviews that are linked by the Standard Vision + Dancinema showcase in Downtown Los Angeles and...

In today’s episode, we welcome Lolly, a friend of the podcast and Dancinema collaborator. Dancefilm is a special mode of expression and calls for a different approach of reception. Lolly has been our liaison, guiding us to consider screendances – the way we view, feel, and discuss them – from a new perspective.   Lolly’s various projects intersect art, dance and somatic coaching. At Dancinema’s fe...

This episode is full of COLOR. Maybe not every color of the rainbow, but do they look very pleasing to the eye. Today’s keyword for this episode will be ‘aesthetic’ which is definitely the first thing that comes to my mind while watching these 3 picks. Red, yellow, green, blue, and so on can emphasize many different moods. If you’re someone with synesthesia, you absolutely know the feeling of what...

If you thought we were done with location scout episodes, boy you are incorrect. We still have a few in our back pocket! We’re going into the deep deep forest to ground our roots in what nature has to offer in this episode.  Let’s be real. Dance films taking place in the woods is a hard production. Most we’ve personally seen or made are not the strongest works. To be honest, forest films have a lo...

You’re probably reading the title of this episode and thinking “site-specific choreography? Aren’t most screendances site-specific?” You are certainly right, listener! You must be a screendance fan! As you know, site-specific episodes have been a recurring topic on the show. As we’ve segmented the dropped pins over the years, we’ve built an understanding of what the director may be conveying throu...

In this episode, we are highlighting the wonderful Jennifer Scully-Thurston, also known as Rogue Dancer.  Frameform listeners may already know this friend of the podcast and fellow panelist at last year’s Screendance Symposium. Enjoy this conversation with Scully and Jen Ray including experiences producing  festivals online and in person, creative approaches to curation and the pursuit of solution...

In this episode, we are highlighting Gabri Christa, a core figure and throughline of Dance Camera West’s events we attended earlier this season.  “ Gabri Christa makes work for stage, screen and everything in between. She hails from the Dutch Caribbean and lives in NYC. Christa is an Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Barnard College of Columbia University, where she teaches Screendan...