The Israeli Center for Digital Art, in cooperation with Holon Cinemathèque, the British Council and Forward Motion, invited Isabel Rocamora to conduct a hands-on workshop that explores the stages of making a movement-based film. The workshop will take place between February 29th to March 6th the number of participants is limited.
Isabel Rocamora is an artist filmmaker/ choreographer who make screen-based work for installation, cinema and art broadcast.
On March 6th at 20:30 a Forward Motion screening: ’Insights’ will be held at Holon Cinemathèque, moderated by Rocamora.
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (5 day intensive followed by Forward Motion presentation)
This hands-on workshop explores the stages of making a movement-based film, particularly considering relationships between the language of video and the individual creativity of the participants. The focus will be on providing the practical tools for experimenting with languages and techniques, followed by the development and completion of a ’choreographic’ film. ’Choreographic’ is here used to encompass all action which moves: this could be kicking a football, performing sign language, dancing, combat or, indeed the flight of a flock of birds.
The week will start with a 30 minute presentation of my work, where I will introduce my trajectory as artist, choreographer and filmmaker and show a few short extracts of my films and multi-channel installation works (such as Horizon of exile, Body of War, Residual). The workshop will kick off with a grounding in video technique, including digital photography (camera set-up, composition, movement), elements of space and time, and working with studio/ available light. Emphasis will then be placed on the relatio nship between the body and the lens, through a series of excercises in reduced groups of ’choreographer’ or director/ subject/ camera operator – investigations which will then be taken outside the studio to exterior sites. Here, we’ll look at the interaction between action and place as seen by the lens. The group will then be divided into production teams to make their own individual films.
Workshop schedule: 10 am to 5 pm (with one hour for lunch)
Day 1: brief presentation on my work; what is a choreographic film/ the creative process; digital photography for movement (technical workshop, understanding of camera, light, location, space)/ collaboration methodologies.
Day 2: the body and the lens - choreographic excercises; choreographing the body for the camera and the camera to the body; working with place - the moving body and site (the nature of place over location, perspectives, the syntax of its space, its texture).
Day 3: creating material/ storyboarding and shoot planning.
Day 4: shoot.
Day 5: reviewing material/ basic editing (dependent on resources)/ presentation and distribution strategies.
Within this tight structure, the workshop programme is usually tailored to the participant’s interests, background and level. Some adjustments to this programme may be made once the selection process has taken place.
ISABEL ROCAMORA BIOGRAPHY
Isabel Rocamora is an artist filmmaker/ choreographer who makes screen-based work for installation, cinema and art broadcast. Isabel trained in film and performance at Bristol University, U.K. (film directing) and Maine Workshops, U.S (cinematography), in physical performance at Jacques Lecoq and in butoh dance with master Daisuke Yoshimoto. As co-Artistic Director of Momentary Fusion (1993 – 2000), and Artistic Director of Infinito Productions(2000 – onwards) she has directed and choreographed performance and new media works, touring large-scale theatres worldwide often under the portfolio of the British Council (Europe, Asia, U.S, South Africa). Nationally her performance work has been commissioned by institutions such as the Bluecoat Arts Centre and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Rocamora’s films have been screened at festivals, filmothèques and museums worldwide and broadcast on NPS, Channel 4, TV2 Spain and Arte Tv. Horizon of exile received an IMZ Dance Screen Award, the Hague 2007; a Jumping Frames Ultimate Panel’s Choice Award, Hong Kong and a Dance Camera West Choreography Media Honor for outstanding achievement, Los Angeles 2008. Among the list of extensive screenings, the work has equally shown at film festivals and in visual art contexts. These on the one hand include: Dance on camera, NY; Video Dance Montevideo and Buenos Aires; IDN, Barcelona; Belgrade International Film Festival; Istambul International Film Festival; Cinecity, Brighton; Kuan Du Arts Festival, Taipei and on the other:Videoformes, Clermont-Ferrand; Arte Video Roma; Fondazione Merz, Turin; FACT, Liverpool;Caixa Forum, Barcelona; Museo de Arte Moderno de Cali, Colombia and the Getty Centre, L.A. Published under the Forward Motion DVD collection, Horizon of exile has also appeared in book form, edited by Sala Parpalló Museum in Spain.
Represented by Galeria SENDA, recent exhibitions include Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; Art Forum, Berlin and the National Museum of Photography, Copenhaguen. Isabel’s work has been selected for major surveys on contemporary video art for venues such as Pacific Centre, Los Angeles andArtium Museum of Contemporary Art, Vitoria. Her solo show The Intimacy of Violencepremiered at Galeria Senda and Arts Santa Monica in May 2011. Its central films are soon to be exhibited, amongst others, at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel, the Museum of Modern Art, Bologna, the Kulturhuset Museum, Stockholm and the Austrian Cultural Forum, NYC.
Isabel teaches video installation at the Instituto Europeo di Design, has taught filmmaking skills at Bristol University, U.K and Ohio and Brown Universities, U.S, and as core tutor at ECIB(Barcelona Film School). She has been widely invited to give artist talks in the context of her exhibitions, including: London Architects’ Association; Banff New Media Centre, Canada; theWatershed
Media Centre and Whitechapel Gallery, U.K, the Royal Artistic Circle, Barcelona and theAustrian Cultural Forum, NY. She leads specialist workshops worldwide for the British Council. Isabel lives and works between London and Barcelona.
FILMOGRAPHY:
2011 The Speed of Violence – single channel, 43 min, Arts Council England, U.K
2011 Fear, Defence, Disappearance – dual channel, 11 min, Arts Council England, U.K
2010 Body of War – single channel, 20 min, South East Dance/ Arts Council England, U.K
2009 Promise of fallen time – single channel, 18 min, TV3, Reeldance, ACE, Australia/Spain/ U.K
2007 Horizon of Exile – single and dual channel, 22 min, Arts Council England, U.K
2005 Insomnia (co-director Jo Cammack) – s ingle channel, 6 min, Channel 4, U.K
2005 Residual – dual channel installation, 10 min, Watershed Media Centre, ACE, U.K
2005 Portrait in time and gesture – dual channel installation, 6 mins, dance.tech, ACE U.K
2002 Passage (co-director Marcus Behrens) – single channel 26 min, Arte Tv, U.K/ Germany
1991 Fragmented Transparencies – single channel, Bristol University, U.K
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