Tribute to Lester Horton

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.

This short animation draws on advanced digital technologies to offer a new vision of dance in cinema. With motion capture (MoCap) and particle processing, designers Denis Poulin and Martine Époque create virtual dancers free of their morphological appearance. In this balletic and hypnotic film, dynamic traces carry the motion of the real dancers behind the on-screen movements. Addressing environmental themes by way of metaphor, CODA is a fused universe where space and time collide, deploy, and dissolve. In this technically and formally innovative film, luminous bodies in the infinite space of the cosmos transform and evolve to the rhythms of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

On a summer day in the 1950s, a native girl watches the countryside go by from the backseat of a car. A woman at her kitchen table sings a lullaby in her Cree language. When the girl arrives at her destination, she undergoes a transformation that will turn the woman’s gentle voice into a howl of anger and pain.

A tale about the search for new sensorial experiences and territories. It’s a teaching and learning experience through body exploration and manipulation: two strangers dance with their passion, desire, gestures and contact.

Midsummer celebration with dance and courtship in the idyllic Swedish landscape.

A 12 year old boy with a passion for dance and his brother are rescued from the streets by an old showman who takes them to live with his estranged former dancing partner/brother.

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...

Inspirational true story of Iranian dancer Afshin Ghaffarian, who risked his life for his dream to become a dancer despite a nationwide dancing ban.

A film crew wants to make a serious drama, but the investors agree to fund the movie only if they make something funny. Hence the drama becomes a comedy with famous singer Đorđe Marjanović in star role.

An ambitious singing and dancing cat in 1939 Hollywood overcomes several obstacles to fulfill his dream of becoming a movie star.

The Hamburg Ballet was one of the first ballet companies internationally to return to its studios after the first lockdown. The ballet Ghost Light by John Neumeier deals with isolation and the feelings and fantasies an empty stage may evoke. Developed in fragments using small groups of dancers and under the constraints imposed by Covid-19, the choreography reflects situations, fears, relationships, memories, and emotions experienced during the pandemic.

A story of a dance crew and their long-suffering wanderings to bring together their dreams, after a long audition process.

A short film written by Hussain Manawer about 2020 and mental health.

Danny O'Neill and Hank Taylor are rival trumpeters with the Perennials, a college band, and both men are still attending college by failing their exams seven years in a row. In the midst of a performance, Danny spies Ellen Miller who ends up being made band manager. Both men compete for her affections while trying to get the other one fired.

A documentary following the conscious evolution of electronic music culture and the spiritual movement that has awakened within.

In this short film by Norman McLaren, dancers enact the Greek tragedy of Narcissus, the beautiful youth whose excessive self-love condemned him to a trapped existence. Skilfully merging film, dance and music, the film is a compendium of the techniques McLaren acquired over a lifetime of experimentation.

Tyler Gage receives the opportunity of a lifetime after vandalizing a performing arts school, gaining him the chance to earn a scholarship and dance with an up and coming dancer, Nora.

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.

A funny, cruel exploration of the male psyche, Enter Achilles is set in a typical British pub, a shabby, nicotine-stained boozer. Pop songs tumble out of the jukebox, there is football on the TV, and the eight men lark around, pint glasses in hand. But their blokish fun is balanced on a knife-edge of tension, for beneath the mateyness lurks a disturbing undercurrent of paranoia and insecurity, where weakness is brutally exploited and violence covers up vulnerability.

Tar Steam Princess Armada travels along Lake Saimaa to St. Petersburg and back during the years of Russian rule over Finland. The ship's crew gets tired of their sophisticated coffee maker and replaces her with Roma girl Veera, who has escaped from an arranged marriage. On the way back, mysterious passengers appear on the ship.