Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Artistic Director, Peter Boal, has announced the launch of the PNB Dance Film Festival which will showcase digital creations and voices to new audiences.
The free online festival, which will premiere on March 18, 2022, is accepting submissions through December 15, 2021 of short (three minutes or less) and feature (12 minutes max) dance films from digital dance creators.
Suddarth is the Festival Manager and a soloist with Pacific Northwest Ballet. He states:
“The idea for this festival was born from the unprecedented explosion of digital dance creativity that emerged during the pandemic and stretched our art-form in ways never experienced before. The PNB Dance Film Festival is an opportunity for PNB to act as a bridge uniting voices within the greater dance community, while forging a more connected and inclusive arts world.”
The panel of adjudicators includes choreographers Donald Byrd and Benjamin Millepied, and filmmakers Ezra Hurwitz, Nel Shelby and Julie Tokashiki.
Two winning filmmakers will be offered commissions to create original digital works to be showcased as part of PNB’s 50th anniversary season (2022-2023).
In conjunction with the PNB Dance Film Festival, beginning in the spring of 2022, the company will also accept submissions for the Micro Film Festival, geared toward filmmakers 18 years or younger. These works of 30 – 60 seconds in length will be reviewed by a panel of PNB company dancers. The winner of the Micro Festival will be featured on PNB’s social channels in the summer of 2022.
Featured Photo for the PNB Dance Film Festival from Pacific Northwest Ballet’s website.