This week is the 3rd episode in 4-part Flatpack Festival special. Flatpack is a really inventive and subversive event that happens in Birmingham every year, screening a whole host of films and art forms that you might not have seen before. And in that vein, I was really chuffed to get to speak to this week’s guest Sima Gonsai, who is an independent film director and producer specialising in screen dance.
Screen dance is a movement-based arts form that combines cinematography with choreography in its storytelling. Sima will do a much better job of explaining what that is and how she came to be involved in it. This year at Flatpack she programmed an event called Merce Cunningham at 100: Innovations in Screen Dance, in which she explored the ongoing conversation between dance, film and digital technology through a brief history of Merce Cunningham, a pioneering contemporary dancer and an early innovator in splicing performance with projected imagery.
So I’ll admit I was slightly out of my comfort zone for this interview, because visual arts is something I know next to nothing about and I really was asking questions without much understanding of what Screen Dance was, but it turned out to be really fascinating. We talk a lot of about funding, about being an independent filmmaker and what that looks like, as well as how Sima’s career changed after she had her daughter, so I really appreciate Sima’s honesty there. I think Sima is testament to the fact that you can make and screen your work even if it doesn’t fit neatly into a category or operates outside the mainstream.
#138: Georgia Goggin returns!
#137: Desiree Akhavan, Director, Writer, Actor
#136: Moss Barclay, Executive Producer for TV at See-Saw Films
#135: Leo Anna Thomas, Wellbeing Facilitator
#134: Farhana Bhula, Head of Creative at Film4
#133: Vicki Brown, Senior Executive of Sales & Distribution at BFI
#132: Tricia Tuttle, Head of Directing Fiction at NFTS
#131: Uzma Hasan, Producer
#130: Laura Zempel, Editor
#129: Clare Baines, Disability Equality Lead at BFI
#128: Cassandra Johnson-Bekoe, Writer, Producer, Script Editor & Head of Development at DARE Pictures
#127: Emma Obank, Talent Agent at Casarotto Ramsay & Associates
#126: Sophia Hardman, Foley Editor & Mixer
#125: Helen Gladders, Producer
#124: Eve Gabereau, Founder & MD of Modern Films
#123: Jeanie Igoe, producer
#122: Hanna Flint, Critic, Author & Broadcaster
#121: Ines Adriana, Sound Designer & Mixer
#120: Lucy Bright, Music Supervisor
#119: Olive Nwosu, Filmmaker
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