OPENING NIGHT GALA & DANCE FILM SHOWCASE

Join us for an exciting evening under the stars at the Topanga Community Club Ball Field as we kick off the 11th Annual Topanga Film Festival: Technology @ Play.

The evening's festivities include live music and theatrics by roving performers, our signature live silkscreening, courtesy of Sparky Firepants - bring an article of clothing and leave with a TFF'15 memento, a circus show by FOCUSfish's "Two Men and Three Balls", and an outdoor screening of the Dance Film Showcase, featuring short dance films from around the world.

Chef Dan Daidone will be serving up an array of playful fair food favorites with a healthy and plant-based twist, and the drinks will be flowing.

Reception: 6:30pm

Pre-Show Performance: 8:30pm

Outdoor Screening: 9:00pm

Dance films in competition:

FERRY | Directed by Jennifer Keller

Remembering a happier past, a woman resists inevitable change at the remains of an old ferry docking station.

GRAMMAR OF MOVEMENT | Directed by Roger Stoneburner

An experimental, hybrid short film fusing dance, drama, poetry, cinematography and music.

AURA LEE | Directed by Mitchell Rose

"Swing through winter fitfully / On the stormy air / Yet if thy blue eyes I see / Gloom will soon depart." To the Civil War-era song Aura Lee, the "maid with golden hair" cuts a lonely figure dancing amidst a snowy wilderness. Choreographed and performed by Charlotte Stickles.

ROLLING FRAMES | Cirected by Katie Garrett

Rolling Frames is a collaboration between a filmmaker, a poet and a choreographer. It's an intimate and personal look into the scenarios of three very different relationships that are affected and manipulated by dependency. At the heart of Rolling Frames are a series of shifting voices and characters that inhabit three very different relationships. These relationships are linked by the role that dependency plays in each.

VANISHING LINES | Directed by Sara Silkin

Carol gets lost in her music and loses the reality that surrounds her.

APPROACHING-THE-PUDDLE | Directed by Sebastian Gimmel

approaching-the-puddle is a dance short in which a curious woman appropriately dressed for a rainy day explores her environment at an empty car park. Around puddles she dances in child-like play, drifts into a fantastic inner world, and unravels a magical place as her rubber boots come to life.

INHERITOR RECORDINGS | Directed by Sophia Wolf & Brian Johnson

A short film created in collaboration between 605 Collective and Director Brian Johnson. Featuring 16 dancers, Inheritor Recordings warps time and place to augment and expand 605's raw physicality. A quiet uprising of a new generation. Inheritor Recordings is a reimagined adaptation of an excerpt from 605's original stage work

CYBIL | Directed by Jonathan Lawley

A short, minimalist, dance film that explores the idea of wanting what you can't have, and discarding what is already yours. Director Jonathan Lawley, compliments the beautiful lines of Tyler Gledhill and Antonella Martinelli by using subtle shadows and silhouettes. Antonella and Tyler interpret Courtnae Bowman's choreography beautifully and will take your breath away.

HOME ALONE | Directed by Adi Halfin

Featuring the Bat Sheva Dance Company ensemble, this short film imparts an atmosphere of 'parental absence' as the dancers make creative use of the space - an abandoned building - combining planned and improvised choreography or "Featuring the Bat Sheva Dance Company ensemble, this video is a sensual exploration of an abandoned space, challenging the limits of body and gravity."

KNOCK | Directed by Thomas Polard & Nathan Smith

The last man on Earth sits alone in a room as three boys have a sleepover telling each other scary stories. A cross-over occurs between a fictional man's life in solitude and the future of one of the boy's very own reality.

G14 | Directed by Harlan Doolittle

A taste of sensory overload. This experimental fashion film explores deification of beauty through a sharp blend of music and image, tapping into the emotional danger of being surrounded by images in the 21st century.

APOTHEOSIS | Directed by Bobbi Dulaney

Apotheosis deals with mental spaces and the barriers, memories and insecurities that haunt and inhibit transcendence and was choreographed for hula hoop and aerial silk dance. The subject exists at first in a featureless void surrounded by the weight of her troubles. Throughout the film she rejects/returns to her despair, but gradually she finds levity and freedom through her movement and exploration of her mind-scape. Her journey is a transition through emotional spaces, higher and higher until she can finally let go of the past.

LITTLE DREAMS | Directed by Wilkie Branson

An independent dance animation about dreams, fears and aspirations.

THE INTERDIMENSIONAL DANCE | Directed by Charrise Skye Aguirre, Animated by Dorian Yarnelson

The animation of Goddess Inanna's archetypal descent and psychedelic dance into the underworld--A spiritual initiation of sorts to rekindle old world magic in the day of technology.

ORBIT | Directed by Adrian Eliot and Ian Levine

Spun into orbit, dancers explore movement through cycles, repetition, and disappearance.

SAJAK THOR | Directed by Chris Rogy

Sajak Thor engages with a violent political landscape that has remained challenging in Cambodia ever since the country's nation-wide elections on July 28, 2013. This video depicts the Apsara dancer as peacemaker, delivering a message to the people of Cambodia, at a time of post-election conflict

Paid parking is available at the venue. If parking on Topanga Canyon Blvd., make sure all tires are inside the white lines. Flashlights are advised for walking to your car after dark.

THIS IS AN OUTDOOR SCREENING. The canyon gets cool at night, so a jacket or sweater is advised. Please bring your own blanket, cushion, or lawn chair for comfortable seating on the ball field.

FRIENDS & FANS OF THE FEST: No need to purchase a ticket. Please RSVP by emailing friends@topangafilmfestival.com