Contact Dance Every Body by Olya Glotka danced away with the Gold Jury Award at the Contact Dance International Film Festival (CDIFF). The film features StopGap Foundation founder Luke Anderson as he dances using his wheelchair to gracefully lift his dance partner Laura Storey as they intertwine tenderly in the galleries of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Olya Glotka is a young, self-made filmmaker who is in search of ways to empower people and make the world a better place through the power of filmmaking and dance.
Parcon NYC #1: Subway Stops won the Silver Jury Award, filmed by Satoko Sugiyama, Martin Henson, and Parcon NYC. Capturing the story of an everyday subway ride home for a Latinx girl from the Bronx, the environment around her comes alive with dancers performing a genre that fuses parkour with contact dance improvisation called parcon.
Martin Henson and Satoko Sugiyama are independent filmmakers with hundreds of films and television commercials to their name. Parcon NYC is a collective of artists, movers and healers dedicated to inclusion and investigating human connection with others and place through weight sharing, balance and touch.
The Bronze Jury Award was awarded to Wake Me Up, a short film by Celine Poon. The film started as a school project at the International Baccalaureate school, Fairview International School in Kuala Lumpur after two young girls, Sonia and Leila, discovered contact dance improvisation. The result is a delightful and honest portrayal of friendship that is the epitome of contact dance improvisation all levels approach.
The CDIFF finishes up its third season today with a post-festival film workshop with Gold Jury award-winning filmmaker Olya Glotka and guests making dance films in various locations in High Park.