Cannes Short Film Corner / Berlin Fashion Film Festival - Ghost Story
Ghost Story follows four dancers in search of a narrative as they prowl the interiors and exteriors of Bjarke Ingels’ new “court scraper” VIA 57 West in NYC, responding to the building’s architecture and scale with movement. While the image of a figure in a red rain slicker is occasionally seen lurking or giving chase, two male dancers often emerge as the more mysterious and sinister characters.
Interview with Writer/Director Sarah Elgart
Watch Ghost Story here:
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I’m a choreographer and director. As a choreographer I do a lot of live, site-specific work in alternative locations like airports, bus terminals, parks, corporate plazas and more. I also work a lot in film and television. And as a director one of the things I love exploring is the intersection of dance and film. In my site work I’m always preoccupied with using scale – bringing the highest points of the building to the viewer’s eye at the pedestrian level, and the viewers eye to the highest points of the building and beyond.
VIA 57 West, the new Bjarke Ingels building in New York is a wonder of scale and imagination. It won the 2016 DAM Duetshces Architekturmuseum Award, as international high-rise of the year. I began seeing it when visual artist Stephen Glassman was half way through completion of the 8 story sculptural entrance way he was commissioned to do for it, and was excited about the possibilities of integrating the landscape, lines, and shapes of the building, as well as his sculpture with the human form in movement. The possibilities seemed endless, so we went for it.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Dance is a life force. It’s accessible communication that transcends language and it’s a jugular to all aspects of youth culture. Within the last twenty or more years dance has had a major resurgence, and spawned a multi-million dollar industry in film and television, so it’s nothing to be ignored. When done well the intersection of dance and the camera is beguiling, beautiful, sexy, exciting, delicious, and incredibly human. Ghost Story is all these things and it works across genres, merging street dance and contemporary. It has beautiful music by French composer Chapellier Fou, amazing fashion by the legendary Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake, amazing camera work, sound design, and editing, and four stunning dancers who are followed as they prowl the interiors and exteriors of VIA 57 West in search of a narrative. And Ghost Story is generous, allowing the viewer to maker her/his own associations rather than hitting them over the head with a literal story.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Personally, I’m interested in blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, between dance and life. I like when the boundaries between these forces are very thin, and less control is at play. I investigated this both in the way the choreography works within the film and with the architecture, and formally in the film itself which at a certain point breaks away entirely from the music. To me these parallel notions that we deal with daily as part of the human condition – when to exert control and when to surrender.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
There was no script per se, just a concept and shot list which we mostly followed. In the film we used every set up I had except maybe one. I worked very intuitively and also spent a lot of time in advance deciding what parts of and how I wanted to use the space, and with what kind of movement and feeling and colors (in terms of the wardrobe). We spent a lot of time in editing, much more than I anticipated, but I loved every second of it. It was here that I felt it was really important to depart from the music, which was nothing I anticipated doing initially. Departing from the music gave the film a lot of breath. It opened it up, and gave it a form that I never anticipated it having, but am very happy with.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
It has been really, really well received. The feedback has been mostly “wow”.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
No, not yet, but I welcome that when it comes!
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Having just learned of this platform, I really have had no specific expectations, but I will be happy if many more people find out about Ghost Story, and of course I would love to have distributors and producers see it and garner interest in it, and in me as a filmmaker. I’ve directed many music videos and shorts but I would love to explore directing commercials as well.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
All of the above!
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I just want people to feel. I would love people to be excited, to be moved, to ask questions, to spark discussions, and I would love to see people who watch the film want to get up and dance.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
I can think of two: 1) The characters in Ghost Story are in search of a narrative. What do you think it is and does it matter? 2) Usually architecture and dance are there to embellish a story. What happens, as in this case, when they are the central characters?
Would you like to add anything else?
Dance on film, or what I call Screen Dance, is a vital and international genre of filmmaking. Screen dance has given dance a kind of permanence, an extended lifespan beyond its ephemeral nature. Like a great piece of architecture, visual art, or a great film, dance now has the power to be a more enduring cultural generator in our day-to-day lives. Dance is bursting from cracks in the sidewalk, infiltrating everyday life, and claiming its place in popular culture. International dance shorts, features and docs, music videos, commercials and more exist on the web and popular social media platforms as screen dance.
More and more film and dance makers across commercial, concert, site specific and other genres and disciplines are exploring the very unique intersections of dance and the camera. Great screen dance inspires, deserves critical insight, and demands to be shared. If dance is poetry in motion, then screen dance has the power to wordlessly extend beyond socio-political, cultural, and racial barriers to connect us as human beings.
What are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Ghost Story is an official selection of the Berlin Fashion Film Festival where it has been nominated for an award and is screening early June, and we are submitting to other key festivals throughout the US and Europe. I am busy creating new live projects for venues on the East Coast and beyond, scheming up my next short film, and producing round two of Dare to Dance in Public Film Festival for Cultural Weekly, a festival I produce for an online magazine in which I write a regular column entitled ScreenDance Diaries. I am also curating a day in a dance film festival in Los Angeles. Producer Stephen Glassman and Stephen Glassman Studio is working on a project called Open Air, which transforms urban billboards into intelligently networked, suspended bamboo forests, with climate monitors and Sky Water generators that create fresh drinking water from the air.
Interview: May 2017
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Ghost Story
Ghost Story follows four dancers in search of a narrative as they prowl the interiors and exteriors of Bjarke Ingels’ new “court scraper” VIA 57 West in NYC, responding to the building’s architecture and scale with movement. While the image of a figure in a red rain slicker is occasionally seen lurking or giving chase, two male dancers often emerge as the more mysterious and sinister characters.
VIA 57 West’s was recently awarded the Deutsches Architekturmuseum’s (DAM) 2016 International High Rise Award (IHA). Artist Stephen Glassman’s “Flows Two Ways”, the 8-story sculpture forming its entry, was heralded by Architect’s Newspaper as “The most innovative New York City wall work in fifty years”.
Length: 7:33
Director: Sarah Elgart /Arrogant Elbow
Producer: Stephen Glassman Studio
Writer: Sarah Elgart
About the writer, director and producer:
Director/Writer: Sarah Elgart/Arrogant Elbow paints sites, stages, and films with singular, visceral imagery, and movement drawn from the quotidian human experience to create magic out of the mundane
Producer: Stephen Glassman Studio produces site-work and giant sculpture. The practice investigates scale and social impact to generate the intuitive human gesture in the public and private space.
Key cast: Chelsea Bonosky, Albert Esquilin Jr. (aka The Ghost of New York), Charissa Kroeger, Storyboard P and
Taylor Enin (as the red figure)
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists): Looking for all of the above
Social media handles:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArrogantElbow/
Instagram: @arrogantelbow
Funders: Stephen Glassman Studio
Made in association with: Stephen Glassman Studio
Where can I see it in the next month? Berlin Fashion Film Festival