Four dancers, each bearing their own burden, find comfort when their isolated experiences converge in a lush, emotionally intense exchange.

Interview with Director Kitty McNamee

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

This film is a true collaboration between myself and artist Lara Schnitger.

The moment I first encountered artist Lara Schnitger's sculptural packs I saw them in motion - their stories resonating through dancers’ bodies, not sitting in gallery silence. Lara was spurred to create the sculptures in response to witnessing the current migrant crisis first hand on a recent trip to Europe. Constructed with fabric culled from the lining of vintage suitcases and slim wooden sticks, the packs evoke both physical and emotional rootlessness. We wanted to find an organic intersection of sculpture and dance, body and spirit to explore those themes. With our incredible cast of dancers diving deep into the story and pulling from existing relationships, we collectively created our own world. Flea was equally inspired by Lara’s work and scored Burden Halved as a solo bass extrapolation. Having Flea's creative response to the visual narrative of the completed picture was a revelation, it completely transformed the film and brought it fully to life.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

The sense of dislocation is sadly familiar to many of us - through our own experiences and those we see in media daily. I believe that the film creates a hopeful response to that experience.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

The dancers and I translate universal themes through movement - a universal language. Working together over time trust has been built which allows them to bring their deeply personal reactions to the material.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?

We didn't work from a script. The choreography evolved as it was translated from dancer to dancer. On the day of we added threads of choreography and had the dancers teach it to each other. We also took advantage of some particularly wonderful lighting surprises on the day.

What type of feedback have you received so far?

The pacing of the film has been challenging to some viewers. We have gotten a universally glowing response to the works of art that spurred the creation of the film.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

Yes! It made me question the length of the film. I second-guessed the pacing as well - but Lara Schnitger and our editor Lori Lovoy-Goran held firm! I'm glad that I listened to them and didn't react.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

More exposure for the film and for dance film in general. We would love to have it seen by many!

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

Would love to have more film festival directors see and program the film. Distribution is something I'd like to explore as well.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

I hope that it brings hope and inspires our audience with its beauty.

Behind the scene of Burden Halved (Photo credit: Meeno Peluce).

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

What is your Burden?

Would you like to add anything else?

This film was intensely collaborative. Artist Lara Schnitger was involved in every aspect of the film. I am grateful for her generosity and the physical and spiritual generosity of everyone involved.

What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?

We are all busy working on multiple creative projects!

Interview: August 2019

We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. 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

Burden Halved

Four dancers, each bearing their own burden, find comfort when their isolated experiences converge in a lush, emotionally intense exchange.

Length: 8:34

Director: Kitty McNamee

Producer: Kitty McNamee, Lara Schnitger

About the writer, director and producer:

KITTY MCNAMEE is a highly regarded choreographer and director working across media. McNamee earned distinction from Dance Magazine as an artist with “an outsize talent for that most elusive gift, originality.” Kitty began her career as the Artistic Director of Hysterica Dance Co., a consistently prolific and creative collective that redefined dance in Los Angeles. Kitty’s work has been enriched by collaborations with composers, filmmakers, directors and writers on live performance, TV and film projects.

Recent work includes LA Opera’s Tales of Hoffman, San Diego Opera’s La Traviata, Target’s A New Kind of Strong campaign, Secret Cinema’s groundbreaking live performances with Laura Marling in London, the World Premiere of Colony Collapse commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival and The Fantasticks at Pasadena Playhouse.

Kitty loves working with actors and is known for her ability to draw out organically nuanced performances. She has created for Paz Vega, Julianne Hough, Margaret Cho, Vanessa Williams, Vittorio Grigolo, Lily Tomlin, Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazon, the boys of 90210 and the ladies of the L- Word. Kitty has loved getting down and dirty choreographing Beautiful and Twisted, Petals on the Wind and Lizzie Borden for Lifetime. She has created movements for music artists Laura Marling, Belly, Fono, Josh Kelley, Kait Weston, Kinky, Hecuba, Nicole Turley, Henry Wolfe and Ariana Delawari.

Kitty collaborated with music icon Easy Mike to create a new hip/hop ballet of On the Waterfront for Muse/ique. Opera credits include Tales of Hoffman, Lucia de Lammermoor, Don Carlo and La Rondine for LA Opera, La Traviata for LA Opera, San Francisco Opera and San Diego Opera, Romeo and Juliette for LA Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. She has a long and fruitful relationship with the LA Philharmonic, where she has choreographed, directed and developed new productions including Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Wing on Wing.

LARA SCHNITGER is a Dutch-American artist living and working in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. Schnitger studied at the Royal Academy of Art (The Hague) from 1987 to 1991 and spent a year in residency at the Kitakyushu Centre for Contemporary Art in southern Japan.

Schnitger works in knitted and sewn textile sculptures, collages, and quilts, as well as videos and photographs, and has produced a book about art created from mundane materials, titled Lara Schnitger: Fragile Kingdom.

Schnitger’s work has been shown internationally at galleries and museums including Magasin 3 in Stockholm, the Chinese European Art Center in Xiamen, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Kunstwerke in Berlin, the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, The Power Plant in Toronto, and the Royal Academy in London. She participated in the Liverpool Biennial in 1999 and the Shanghai Biennial in 2002.

Recent Solo Exhibitions include: 2018 Suffragette City, Frieze Live, Frieze Art Fair, Randall's Island, NY; 2017 Too Nice Too Long, Anton Kern Gallery, NY; Don't Let The Boys Win, Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Dresden, Germany; Suffragette City, Kunsthaus Dresden, Germany; Lundgren Gallery, Mallorca, Spain; 2016 In Real Life: Lara Schnitger, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; 2015 Suffragette City, FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Rheims, France; Suffragette City, Parcours, Art Basel, Lichthof Building, Basel, Switzerland.

Key cast: Reshma Gajjar (dancer), Raymond Ejiofor (dancer), Derek Scheisel (dancer), Zak Ryan Schlegel (dancer)

Looking for: film festival directors, distributors, journalists

Facebook: Kitty McNamee

Twitter: @KittyMcNamee

Instagram: @kittymcnamee

Hashtags used: #burdenhalvedfilm #kittymcnamee #laraschnitger #flea #michaelbalazry #kittystyle #kittymcnameechoreography #contemporaryart

Website: www.kittymcnamee.com/burden-halved

Other: www.kittymcnamee.com

Funders: Self-funded

Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Skyline Indie Festival, Virginia; Santa Cruz Independent Film Festival, Santa Cruz, CA....more to come cannot announce yet!