Hello everyone, and welcome to the second edition of "Why so Serious?" MEP – the Polish version of AMV Hell, featuring only Polish creators. The project began in late August 2009, allowing both editors and scriptwriters to participate. In total, 35 Polish creators and 6 scriptwriters joined. After three months, I received 250 tracks, amounting to 1.5 hours of material. Like in the first edition, a special jury was selected to evaluate the clips. The jury consisted of AceMan, Szwagier, Crossfade, and Kosmit, chosen to ensure fair judgment. After their review, the number of tracks was reduced to 100, resulting in about 25 minutes of final material. The grand premiere of "Why so Serious II" took place on February 6, 2010, during the PAcon convention in Warsaw, attracting a large audience and receiving a standing ovation. Special thanks to Heero, Kosmit, AceMan, Szwagier, Crossfade, and Kaeth, and to all co-authors, without whom this project wouldn’t have been possible.
In this musical short, a man tries to woo the manager of a dance troupe.
Ryan and Kevin and their crew from Los Angeles are hired by U.S. Interpol to be matched up against the notorious Gambler Crew from South Korea, known to the b-boy world as the best of the best. Their mission is to gather information about Tony Kai, an "ex yakuza" member who controls the Asian underworld in the United States. Tony Kai is in South Korea planning a worldwide monopoly on drugs, sex, and gambling. Ryan and Kevin struggle as they go deeper into the Asian underworld. Ryan falls for a beautiful Korean girl named Esther who happens to be the sister of "Kicker", the leader of the mafia-run Gamblers crew. Their love is put to the test as the rivalry between the two crews escalate. As reality sets in, the crew from LA is no match against the world champion Gamblers crew in the Mach 1 competition. Ryan, Kevin and the crew go into hiding where they meet an underground b-boy legend...
Pina Bausch created and performed Café Müller for her dance company Tanztheater Wuppertal. The dance was inspired by and based on her childhood memories of watching her father work at his café in Germany during and immediately following World War II. In this silent style featurette, Bausch shows a restaurant after closing, in which the ghosts of the departed customers stumble blindly into walls and onto chairs but fail to find one another.
A dance performance salute to choreographer-dancer Lester Horton with Alvin Ailey, Carmen de Lavallade and James Truitte, all former members of his company. They perform various works by Horton.
Memories haunt a man and blur the lines between reality and imagination.
Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in Horace's hotel room, much to the annoyance of sleeping Dale Tremont below. She goes upstairs to complain and the two are immediately attracted to each other. Complications arise when Dale mistakes Jerry for Horace.
For two hundred years, the Shakers have been America's most successful utopian society. While seeking harmony, order and perfection in every aspect of their lives, they built minimalistic furniture and buildings that influenced modern design. The Shakers wrote songs of exquisite beauty and danced to the point of ecstasy during their religious meetings. Inspired by this music and dance, choreographer Tero Saarinen created Borrowed Light, a dance piece about communal life and individual sacrifice. Shot in Finland and the United States, featuring interviews and excerpts from Borrowed Light, this documentary explore the cultural legacy of this religious group devoted to creating heaven on earth.
A group of 12 teenagers from various backgrounds enroll at the American Ballet Academy in New York to make it as ballet dancers and each one deals with the problems and stress of training and getting ahead in the world of dance.
The first revival of Wayne McGregor’s critically acclaimed ballet triptych to music by Max Richter, inspired by the works of Virginia Woolf.
An aspiring DJ, from the South Bronx, and his best friend, a promoter, try to get into show business by exposing people to hip-hop music and culture.
A short film written by Hussain Manawer about 2020 and mental health.
The film presents thirteen rhythms of flamenco, each with song, guitar, and dance: the up-tempo bularías, a brooding farruca, an anguished martinete, and a satiric fandango de huelva. There are tangos, a taranta, alegrías, siguiriyas, soleás, a guajira of patrician women, a petenera about a sentence to death, villancicos, and a final rumba.
The Merry Widow, a beguiling, romantic ballet starring Patricia McBride and Peter Martins.
Lin Jin, a passionate dancer held back by his father's disapproval, struggles to find creative inspiration. When he meets the confident and cheerful Xiao Zi, her influence helps him rediscover his passion and the true spirit of youth.
A love story on the first glance, and a self-love story on the second. It's for everyone who has ever felt trapped in their own body. Without words, but with images, dance, and music, we explore the theme of gender identity and internalised transphobia.
During an interview, Tadashi, a young Spanish-Japanese actor who plays female characters in a theatrical practice similar to kabuki, will return to the past to relive his most intimate memories.
Johnny Riggs, a con man on the lam, finds himself in a Latin-American country named Patria. There, he overhears a convent-bred rich girl praying to her guardian angel for help in managing her tangled business affairs. Riggs decides to materialize as the girl's "angel", gains her unquestioning confidence, and helps himself to the deluded girl's millions. Just as he and his partner are about to flee Patria with their booty, Riggs realizes he has fallen in love with the girl and returns the money, together with a note that is part confession and part love letter. But the larcenous duo's escape from Patria turns out to be more difficult than they could ever have imagined.
Classical violinist Roger Grant disappoints his family and teacher when he organizes a jazz band, but he and the band become successful. Roger falls in love with the band's singer, Stella, but his reluctance to lose her leads him to thwart her efforts to become a solo star. When the World War separates them in 1917, Stella marries Roger's best friend and, when Roger returns home after the war, an important concert at Carnegie Hall brings the corners of the romantic triangle together.
Steve Raleight wants to produce a show on Broadway. He finds a backer, Herman Whipple and a leading lady, Sally Lee. But Caroline Whipple forces Steve to use a known star, not a newcomer. Sally purchases a horse, she used to train when her parents had a farm before the depression and with to ex-vaudevillians, Sonny Ledford and Peter Trott she trains it to win a race, providing the money Steve needs for his show.