{"id":348584,"date":"2024-01-17T15:43:48","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T20:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yfile.news.yorku.ca\/?p=348584"},"modified":"2025-07-16T11:28:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T15:28:29","slug":"roll-out-the-red-carpet-york-alums-film-premieres-at-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/2024\/01\/17\/roll-out-the-red-carpet-york-alums-film-premieres-at-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Roll out the red carpet: York alum's film premieres at festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Moving Matter<\/em>, a short film co-created by actor, director and York University alumnus Beau Han Bridge<\/strong>, will see its world premiere at the Dance on Camera Festival at the Film at Lincoln Center venue in New York City.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Beau Han Bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Five years ago, Bridge, who holds a master of fine arts in film production from York, <\/em>was visiting New York City and decided to see a movie premiere \u2013 followed by a director Q-and-A \u2013 at the Film at Lincoln Center, one of the foremost cinematic institutions in the world. \u201cThe experience stuck with me in a way that I really admired and cherished,\u201d says Bridge. As a filmmaker himself, his mind drifted to what-ifs, imagining if a movie of his might ever end up at the Lincoln Center. \u201cI never saw myself premiering any work of my own there,\u201d Bridge recalls thinking at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was \u2013 happily \u2013 wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving Matter<\/em>, a 12-minute short film that Bridge co-created, shot, edited, sound designed and directed, will receive a world premiere at the Lincoln Center in February as part of the Dance on Camera Festival, the longest running dance film festival in the world that celebrates choreographic storytelling in cinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The short film is a product of a unique interdisciplinary collaborative project with two movement artists and educators, Rob Kitsos and Meagan Woods from Simon Fraser University\u2019s School for the Contemporary Arts. The conceptual goal of the project was to explore a form of dance choreography and costume design influenced by materials \u2013 not as objects, but as a kind of collaborator. As described in an academic article<\/a> published in the journal Theatre, Dance and Performance Training<\/em> to provide a template for others to pursue material-led artistic projects, \u201cIn a challenge to normative structures where costumery operates \u2018in service\u2019 of dance, the textile designs for Moving Matter <\/em>do not support the complete autonomy and freedom of moving humans; the wearables have striking characteristics of their own that limit what the human body can do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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A moment from Bridge's short film, Moving Matter<\/em>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The project began with a study of old kitchen flooring about to be discarded and \u2013 with artists from the world of dance and costume design \u2013 explored ways that raw materials like linoleum, wool and plastic could be integrated into garments and choreography. \u201cI was drawn to the idea of how we could harness compositional ideas from non-human material and translate it into choreographic works,\u201d says Bridge, who hopes audiences who see his, Kitsos and Woods\u2019 film will share that interest. \u201cI also hope viewers appreciate and see our efforts in attempting to give the materials an equal voice and consider them equal collaborators in the creative process.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The short film is the latest in Bridge\u2019s body of work, which has included films screened at international film festivals, as well as acting performances in numerous theatre productions. This latest accomplishment, however, is something special, he says. \u201cA film premiere at Lincoln Center means the world to me, as I honestly could not have imagined ever having a work premiering there in my life,\u201d Bridge says. \u201cTo have Moving Matter<\/em> be the first original work that brings me so close to it is quite surreal ... I honestly owe it all to my co-collaborators, Rob Kitsos and Meagan Woods. If it wasn't for them bringing me into this very exciting and beautiful process back in February 2023, and introducing me to new ways of filmmaking through interdisciplinary collaboration, then I wouldn't be here.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see the trailer for Moving Matter <\/em>here: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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