Five new films made by Bakersfield residents and California guest artists produced by Dance Camera West and KDA Creative Corps.
In June 2023, Dance Camera West (DCW) was awarded a grant through the California Arts Council’s KDA Creative Corp (KDACC) Program to fundVISIBILITY: SELF REFLECTIONS, DCW’s signature production program designed to create films by and about under represented artistic and community voices.
With the support of KDA creative Corps, in 2023-2024 DCW focused on Central California and the production of four short dance-films featuring Bakersfield California residents. The goal of the KDACC program is to capture and share the unique stories of individuals living in low HPI quartiles. (The HPI index is a state wide metric which allow users to compare health conditions across cities and counties statewide.) The production teams are comprised of experienced California filmmakers, choreographers and community members who are committed to creating impactful and meaningful content by capturing original movement on camera to empower and amplify voices often marginalized not only in the arts, but also in society.
Beginning last April, the commissioning film VISIBILITY: SELF REFLECTIONS commissioned film project took place over the past 11 months and included three phases: Prepare, Produce, Present.
PREPARE:
For the past two months a 20+ member Bakersfield community choir has been learning the vocals and choreography of California choreographer Sandy Silva’s Migration Dance Film Project in order to perform as a processional at the film premiere. Over 75 dancers have been rehearsing for the performance, while film directors worked on choreography, script writing, rehearsals, set design, and other production preparation.
PRODUCE:
DCW invited established California filmmakers and choreographers to come to Bakersfield to work with local residents to create personal stories through movement and film. The stories told address issues that affect them as members of the LBGTQ+, African American, Unhoused, and Domestic Labor communities.
California filmmakers Joy Isabella Brown, Irishia Hubbard, Jon Leanos, Marlene Millar, Lane Michael Stanley, Madison Olandt, Vanessa Sanchez,and Sandy Silva met with local residents to craft and capture personal stories though dance and film, about Bakersfield CA residents Andrew 3D Dance Fever Jones, Eric Earthworm Pennella, Tim Metz and the California Domestic Workers Coalition.
This phase included filming on location in Kern County and featured a combination of interviews, dance choreography, and documentary footage of their everyday lives.
PRESENT:
The public premiere of the four films is a community festival that will take place in Bakersfield during the week of Saturday April 13 to Sunday April 21, 2024. All events are family-friendly and free.
The opening weekend features a processional and public screening at the city’s Second Saturday celebration at The Brickyard on 1020 18th Street at N Street. The closing weekend features a second processional and screening at the EarthDay661 celebration in Yokut’s Park. Throughout the week, the films will be on display at the Diversity Center on 18th street.
The processional features a film parade of the 20+ member Bakersfield community choir and guest artists Deborah Brockus Dance Company from Los angeles, who will escort a mobile film screen with the films playing as it travels the streets of Bakersfield. The truck then forms an outdoor cinema where audiences can enjoy the 40 minutes of dance and documentary films.
The premiere events offer an opportunity for artists and community to interact in an art festival setting to foster relationships between project participants and audiences. Both days include a day of family friendly activities organized by Second Saturday and Earthday661, to help minimize the barrier of entrance to a performance venues.
“With the use of mixed generations, pedestrian movement the work resonates deeply with audiences, creating an inclusive experience that seamlessly weaves, music, dance and film into one.” - Greta Schoenberg, San Francisco Dance Film Festival
Directed by Lane Michael Stanley | Movement Consultant Jessie Hewit
earthworm is a dance film exploring genderqueer femme embodiment through intuitive movement, yoga, and meditation. It is a collaboration between trans filmmaker Lane Michael Stanley and Bakersfield local Eric Pennella/earthworm, a queer scientist/costumer/performer, and is born of shared lived experience of queerness and personal growth.
F3VER follows the journey of Andrew "3D Dance Fever" Jones, a native of Bakersfield, who defies societal expectations as a professional street dancer, high school substance abuse counselor, and globally recognized dance fitness instructor. As Andrew Jones navigates the challenges of his hometown, he discovers the power of dance as a transformative tool, using its rhythms to overcome personal adversity, and inspire others. Through movement-based scenes and heartfelt moments of reflection, the film shines a light on Andrew Jones’ resilience and showcases the universal language of dance as a means of healing, self-expression, and empowerment.
Andrew ”Dance Fever 3D” Jones, is a professional dancer, body builder, celebrity fitness trainer, and rehabilitative addiction specialist who has appeared on So You Think You Can Dance and is an internationally renowned motivational speaker and ordained minister who specializes in working with at-risk youth. Jones describes himself as a "certified crack baby" from the "hood." Dance and fitness were Jones' escape as he battled anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, while also trying to avoid physical abuse.
Directed & Choreographed by Madison Olandt & Joy Isabella Brown
A documentary style art film that follows our lead character, Tim Metz, into his past, present, and hope for the future. Tim, a father, community builder, and philanthropist, seeks to build a non-profit organization, Good Ground Zero, that supports the betterment of those who are unhoused. We get deeply intimate with Tim's story, as he talks us through his intrapersonal challenges with addiction, homelessness, fatherhood, and his faith.
Madison Olandt, a Los Angeles-based movement artist, choreographer, and director, has worked with Pilobolus, Whim W’him Seattle Contemporary Dance, Dallas Black Dance Theater, DIAVOLO | Architecture in Motion, Jacob Jonas The Company, UCSB Dance Company, and Peridance Contemporary Dance Company. Beyond the stage, her choreographic work has landed in a variety of different creative spaces - such as on the Coachella Main Stage and World of Dance on NBC. Brown is a seasoned filmmaker who brings “tricking” to the forefront of movement culture. Filling in the gaps between dance, gymnastics, and martial arts, her movement style focuses on the merging of acrobatics within contemporary dance. Brown’s background as a dancer, acrobat, and content creator with Jacob Jonas The Company has given her a unique perspective on how to capture movement on film.
Directed by Jon leanos | Choreographed by Vanessa Sanchez
Convivencia is a dance film that brings to light the lives and stories of female essential laborers along the US/Mexico borderlands through Tap dance, Son Jarocho, and Afro-Carribean rhythms. Focusing on the experiences of migrant domestic laborers from "La Colectiva de Mujeres,” a female-led collective of domestic workers in California, the film is a unique fusion of oral histories, percussive dance, footwork, and folkloric dance by filmmaker John Jota Leaños and choreographer/director Vanessa Sanchez. Through oral history and dance, the film dives into the struggles, resistance, and resilience of these women to showcase their significant contributions to our communities and celebrates their spirit of community, joy, and resilience.
This project is co-directed by John Jota Leaños, an award-winning Mestizo (Xicano/Italian/Chumash) new media artist whose animation work has been shown internationally at festivals and museums including Sundance Film Festival; Cannes Short Film Corner; the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico; San Francisco International Festival Animation; the KOS Convention 07, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. Leaños has also exhibited at the Whitney Biennial in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a Guggenheim Fellow in Film; Creative Capital Foundation Grantee; a United States Artist Fellow; and has been an artist in residence at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Center for Chicano Studies; Carnegie Mellon University in the Center for Arts in Society; and the Headlands Center for the Arts. Leaños is currently a Professor of Film & Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Vanessa Sanchez, the film’s choreographer, is a Chicana-Native dancer, choreographer and educator who emphasizes the voices and experiences of Latina, Chicana and Indigenous women and youth through contemporary performance, community arts and traditional dance forms. Her dance and choreographic expression explores movement and rhythm to tell stories of historical oppression and collective resistance. She independently produces the community grant outreach program, “Connecting Communities to Funders,” a free, 3-part series that connects BIPOC, culturally-based dancers and artists with grant organizations.
Migration Dance
Directed by Marlene Millar | Choreographed by Sandy Silva
Migration Dance Film Project is an award-winning continuum of films by filmmaker Marlene Millar and choreographer Sandy Silva that follows a cast of dancer-singers in their multi-sensory exploration of body and vocal percussion. Their creative process called “Procession — Creative” gathers and connects people through a co‑creation model, immersing Migration Dance Film Project’s alongside interdisciplinary artists and everyday community members globally. Intergenerational body and vocal percussion inhabit urban scapes and rural landscapes — meshed in thoughtful creativity — observed, participatory, and regrown.
This activity is supported By Dance Camera West and in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and Kern Dance Alliance, a nonprofit corporation. Learn more at kdacreativecorps.org.
Community Partners and Film Locations include Center For Spiritual Living, Dagny's Coffee Co, Beale Park, Penn Point Dance Academy, La Movida Night Club, The Hub, Brickyard, The Diversity Center, NAMI, The Shimmering Void, and more.
The KDACC project aligns with Dance Camera West’s work over the past 22 years to showcase the best of international dance films and to provide more local resources for artists to self-produce independent films.
Since 2018 DCW has worked directly to expand equitable representation by creating funding projects and professional assistance by harnessing its distinguished reputation, expertise, and inherent privilege to advance diversity in the art form.
THE KDA CREATIVE CORPS
The KDA Creative Corps (KDACC) is a pilot program, part of the California Creative Corps, designed to promote community and civic engagement, spread awareness about water and energy conservation, climate change, emergency preparedness, relief and recovery through the arts. KDACC is administered by the Kern Dance Alliance, one of 14 organizations selected statewide to regrant funds in their respective regions to arts and social service organizations, individual artists, and cultural workers. For more information, visit KDAcreativecorps.org.
