Inspired Film Festival Murmuring
Marquee TV’s popular Summer Shorts Festival returns in August with a series of free short films available for global audiences to watch and enjoy. The arts streaming site will be sharing short films from leading arts organisations and festivals across dance, theatre and music, bringing together new and established talent from around the world. Films from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Scottish Ballet, Manchester Camerata, Stuttgart’s Gauthier Dance Company, San Francisco Dance Film Festival and Australia’s Inspired Dance Film Festival will be featured on the site throughout August, amongst others.
The collection has been carefully curated by the Marquee TV team, with a particular focus on films that show how the arts help people express themselves and talk about difficult topics. From Manchester Camerata’s film about early-onset dementia to Akil McKenzie’s Historians from San Francisco Dance Film Festival about being a young black male growing up with racism in the US and disabled dance artist Annie Edward’s dance film as part of Scottish Ballet’s The Shimmering Extraordinary series, this year’s Marquee TV Summer Shorts Festival celebrates the true power of the arts on an international level. A number of the short films also focus on the LGBTQ+ community, with Max Sachar’s Pointe A2B featuring a male-male pas de deux en pointe and Manchester Camerata’s Untold – Caroline exploring the orchestra leader’s journey to acceptance as a gay, Christian woman.
Susannah Simons, Director of Partnerships and curator of Summer Shorts at Marquee TV, said: “We were overwhelmed by the sheer number and quality of short films we received this year and choosing just 30 was a challenge. Telling a story in a short amount of time is a real skill and it is wonderful to see how many artists have responded to the challenge is such an exciting and creative way. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have!”
Ryan McKinny, Head of US Content Partnerships at Marquee TV, said: “Most of us aren’t traveling to San Francisco, Sydney, and Stuttgart this summer, but we can explore the creative outputs of some of those cities’ most exciting contemporary artists. Marquee TV is the creative connector, the hub for discovery that meets audiences where they are, wherever they are, and Summer Shorts is a wonderful entry point for exploration.”
Highlights include:
San Francisco Dance Film Festival: Evidence of it all, a short film with written by Pulitzer-winning librettist Royce Vavrek and narrated by Golden Globe-winning actress Rosamund Pike. Also by San Francisco Dance Company is Fly me to the moon, a film celebrating COL Gail Seymour “The Candy Bomber”, a senior officer and command pilot in the US Air Force who gained fame for dropping candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1949.
Gauthier Dance Company – Stuttgart: A selection of films from The Dying Swans Project, featuring 8 solos by 8 different choreographers. The full series features 17 films and was nominated for a Rose D’or Cannes award in 2021.
Cathy Marston: Drift is a short film featuring choreographer Cathy Marston improvising on the banks of the River Aare in Bern, Switzerland. Directed by Felix von Muralt with music written by Philip Feeney.
Scottish Ballet: A mini-series of six short dance films created by Emmy-nominated director Fx Goby, focusing on the stories of six dancers including drag artist Nikita, designer and choreographer Saul Nash and disabled dance artist Annie Edwards. Each video focusses on the themes of acceptance, identity and respect, looking at how the individuals used dance to overcome obstacles.
Manchester Camerata: Three films from Manchester Camerata’s powerful Untold series, each telling the story of an individual through music. Julie Hesmondhalgh narrates Untold: Keith, telling the story of how music helped Keith, a local Wigan-based man, with his early-onset dementia. Untold: Caroline looks at the story of Caroline Pether, leader of the Manchester Camerata, talking about her own journey to acceptance as a gay, Christian woman, featuring spoken word by poet laureate of Scotland Jackie Kay. Untold: Gábor tells the personal story of the Camerata’s Music Director Gábor Takács-Nagy, where he reflects on the highs and lows, challenges and great achievements of his career to date.
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: Following the popularity of the OAE’s previous Summer Shorts videos including Dido’s Lament, the Orchestra is back with two exclusive videos for Marquee featuring Handel mixed with pop. The first will bring Handel’s Thou Shalt Break Them together with the Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony, and the second will mix Handel’s Where’er you walk with music by Finneas.