VAEFF Presents "On The Edge" Screening + Artist Q&A
The “On The Edge” program presents films that push and explore social, societal, and psychological boundaries.
Venom & Vine
Director: Brian C. Gonzalez, Vanessa Walters
Synopsis: In this Prologue for “RIPENING : Dawn of the Wylding,” (an eco-feminist dance experience by Vanessa Walters), the ensemble cast is introduced as a collection of isolated, emotionally combustible urban women, who upon reaching an internal breaking point, make the decision to give in to the primal energies that are ready to explode out of their bodies.
Methuselah
Director: Nathan Sellers
Synopsis: Rooted in a childhood memory, ‘Methuselah’ examines the exploitation of trees and their haunting dual role, as silent witnesses and unwitting participants, in humanity’s long history of violence.
The Edge
Director: Recep Akar
Synopsis: Some of us are aware, some of us are not, but we are all teetering back and forth on the edge of the same cliff, trying to keep our balance. Will a wind take us down, will a hand grab us and pull us over the edge? Can hope sustain us in these uncertain and turbulent times? “The Edge” is a short film about the fragile balance of life and existential questions.
a foreigner
Director: Eiko Otake
Synopsis: Once a person is a foreigner, she never ceases to be a foreigner. No place is hers, except her shadow.
Baptized by Fire
Director: Kach Offor
Synopsis: A seemingly regular visit to a dealer in the slums of Lagos takes an unexpected turn and forces this anxious stoner on a different kind of trip.
Witch-Hunt
Director: Lauren Pringle
Synopsis: Join Suzette, our hunted witch as she grapples to understand her own intuitive body. Fearful and avoidant of an inner voice, this movement film takes us on a journey that combines dance and narrative elements that wrap us into this dystopian world. Suzette is chased by a group of witches who are hunting her in order for her to realize her own magic powers. Once she does we are drawn into an emotive space where we see deep revelry in her surrender.
Fire Table
Director: Katherine Maxwell
Synopsis: Fire Table navigates the fracture between individual experience and collective memory. Fire Table is an excerpt from ‘a sigh of origin’, a 40-minute dance film situated within an aging psyche, exploring how the brain and body store memory beyond the conscious mind.
10 Dollar Toilet Seat
Director: Gregory Mitnick
Synopsis: Fueled by desperation, Darick, a modern-day urban survivalist, turns to stealing Amazon packages, a lifeline for his drug-addicted existence. This 18-minute documentary unravels the complex dance of survival on the gritty streets outside the soon-to-be-demolished Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City, exposing the harsh reality of those eking out a living in the city’s shadows.
