Cinema: watching bodies

Filming dance is never a neutral act. Who frames, who shows, who looks: each film responds to these questions in its own way, and UNDER/GROUND’s film series takes them as its very material. Two screenings at Cinéma Arvor, as part of Clair Obscur’s Rendez-vous and in partnership with the TNB cinema, bring together works that film bodies in motion from very different perspectives.

On 4 October at 6pm, Style Wars by Tony Silver opens the series. Shot in New York in the early 1980s, this now cult documentary captures the emerging hip hop cultures—graffiti, breaking—at the very moment they are inventing their own codes, between collective affirmation and confrontation with the city’s dominant narratives.

On 14 October at 8:15pm, a double bill brings together Les corps électriques by Raphaël Stora and Sous le béton by Gabriel Naghmouchi. Raphaël Stora films from within: a hip hop dancer turned filmmaker, he returns to movement after years behind the camera, eventually joining the cast of Témoin by Saïdo Lehlouh, presented on 13 October at the TNB. His film traces this journey, the repair through movement, lineage, and the search for one’s place within a culture. The evening resonates directly with the stage: seeing the film the day before or after the performance reshapes how both are perceived.

Each screening is followed by a discussion with the artists featured in the programme, so that the act of looking is never one-way.

Cinéma Arvor, prices from €3.50 to €10.20. Tickets available at the cinema.