52 Portraits
Synopsis
'52 Portraits' is a series of moving image portraits of dancers accompanied by sung autobiographies. It captures the profound, funny and surprising power of their subjects, revealing the stories, thoughts and struggles of dancers in an unexpected way.
Conceived by choreographer Jonathan Burrows, composer Matteo Fargion and video maker Hugo Glendinning. The idea behind the project was to catch both the individual and unexpected brilliance of individual performers, but also the larger collective concerns of dance artists, which accumulate over the course of the 52 films. Originally conceived as a digital project, it began with ideas of the familiar; the common; the shared technological situation. These short gestural portraits were released online every week over a year. These videos now form the chapters of this film.
What emerges in this film is a political and sociological gesture, interrogating the numerous ways artists are subject to hierarchies, stereotypes and marginalisation of any kind. The result is a hugely varied and personal story of what it means to be a dancer.
Details
- Year
- 2017
- Type of film
- Features
- Running time
- 114 mins
- Format
- DCP
- Director
-
Hugo Glendinning, Jonathan Burrows, Matteo Fargion 1st Feature
- Producer
- Sadler’s Wells
- Executive Producer
- Sadler’s Wells
- Editor
- Hugo Glendinning
- Director of Photography
- Hugo Glendinning
- Sound
- Matteo Fargion
- Composer
- Matteo Fargion
- Principal cast
- Kwame Asafo-Adjei Flora Wellesley Wesley Hetain Patel Betsy Gregory Robert Cohan Antonio de la Fe Gillie Kleiman Tim Etchells Vicki Igbokwe Stefan Jovanovi Marquez&Zangs Marianna Emma Siobhan Davies Kloe Dean Namron Yarrum Eleanor Sikorski Botis Seva
- Songs Performed by
- Matteo Fargion, Francesca Fargion
- Film Images
- © Hugo Glendinning
Production Status
Production Company
Hugo Glendinning
4 Blackbird YardRavenscroft Street
London
E2 7RP
Sales Company
Hugo Glendinning
4 Blackbird YardRavenscroft Street
London
E2 7RP
Page updates
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