The Reservation

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.

Scene 23, Slow pan The wind whistles over the dykes of the Willebroek Canal. Armand sighs. The viewer should feel goose bumps under their thick sweater. Make it clear that at this moment, Armand is craving a cup of Borain coffee. Scene 456, Armand's farm Armand puts down his coffee cup. Through the window, he sees a beautiful Romanian refugee with AIDS playing the cello in the beet field. Behind Armand, his wife, a former RTBF announcer, commits suicide by hitting herself with hot potatoes. Scene 2,347, sublime landscape of Flanders Armand can't take it anymore: will he choose the position of deputy for the Vlaamse Blok or that of puppeteer subsidized by the CUCF? No one can say.

In this prospective pilot, Mick Jade, a tennis bum-turned-Las Vegas-song-and-dance man, doubles as a private eye with two female dancers, Ebony and Ivory. The trio go undercover to protect a lady scientist from international hitmen as she heads for Washington D.C. from the near-East with her super-secret formula.

An Austrian director followed five successful African music and dance artists with his camera and followed their lives for a year. The artists, from villages in Ghana, Gambia and Congo, were the subjects of Africa! Africa! touring across Europe, but they have unbreakable roots to their homeland and their families. Schmiderer lovingly portrays his heroes, who tell their stories about themselves, their art and what it means to them to be African with captivating honesty. The interviews are interwoven with dance scenes and colourful vignettes set to authentic music.

A trippy pop-art collage of phallic objects, naked women and American icons, most notably Elvis Presley.

In this musical short, a man tries to woo the manager of a dance troupe.

A transfer student at a rough high school tries joining the cheer-leading squad and finds that she not only has to face off against the head cheerleader, but also against her former school in preparation for a cheer-off competition.

Tom vows to love and protect his Zombie Wife 'til death do they part. Zombie Wife needs feeding, and Tom must fulfill her needs. Day after day, he risks his life to bring home the bacon that his Zombie Wife craves. They long for their life back: a family who used to sing and dance together. Family is unity, unity is power, and they were, and are, invincible when they dance.

In pre-revolution Cuba, Katey Miller is about to defy everyone's expectations. Instead of a parent-approved suitor, Katey is drawn to the sexy waiter, Javier, who spends his nights dancing in Havana's nightclubs. As she secretly learns to dance with Javier, she learns the meanings of love, sensuality and independence.

A Materialaktion (an art performance/happening in which objects are used to create an art piece) by Viennese Aktionist Otto Muehl. The setting is a solemn Christmas celebration.

Rosalyn White is a college sophomore that gave up on her dream of dancing after a horrible car accident killed both her parents and twin brother, leaving her with significant hearing loss. Now after getting a chance to start fresh at the local community college, she runs into Lucas Rowe, an old friend, and current teen idol, guest teaching an acting class. Lucas not only wants to rekindle their friendship but he pushes Rose to dance again using vibrations in the floorboards. Rose has to learn how to start from square one in all the areas that used to come easy like her friendship with Lucas, Dancing, and even her relationship with her older brother Will who has blocked her out since their family's death.

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...

Dallas, an American golf tutor, arrives in a quiet Sydney suburb to teach at the local school and sets about causing chaos with the family she stays with.

A bored estate lawyer spots a beautiful woman in the window of a ballroom dance studio. He secretly starts taking dancing lessons to be near her, and then over time discovers how much he loves dancing. His wife, meanwhile, has hired a private detective to find out why he has started coming home late smelling of perfume.

This documentary will explore the Afro-Caribbean dance, ‘whining’ alongside the practice of twerking to analyze respectability politics, pressures to accommodate whiteness, and gendered criticism of sexual expression within the Black diaspora. Using archival footage of West African dance, expert opinion from dancing and gender studies professors, and the active participation of partygoers in a dance experiment, Watkins will paint the picture of the defiance, autonomy, and ancestral veneration intrinsic to these traditional movement styles.

A documentary on the legacy of ballet in Cuba that aired on PBS in Rochester, NY. Filmed on location in Havana, Cuba July – August, 2016. Featuring Laura Alonso, the history of the National Ballet of Cuba, and interviews with staff and dancers attending CUBALLET at or studying at The Center Prodanza of Cuba.

Presents selections from the major works of choreographer Alvin Ailey as performed by his City Center Dance Theater to background music ranging from modern blues to classical music to traditional spirituals. The choreography is a reflection of the many varied influences in Alvin Ailey's life, influences that are both seen and felt through the vivid performance of the company, which includes the world-renowned artist Judith Jamison.

Gopan is living with his 6 year old son Ashok. His neighbor Celin falls in love with him. But he reveals that Ashok's mom is alive and he narrates his story.

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.

In the spring of 1913, Parisian businessman Gabriel Astruc opens a new theater on the Champs Elysées. The first performance is the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring', danced by the Ballet Russes. The rehearsal process is extremely fraught: the orchestra dislike Stravinsky's harsh, atonal music; the dancers dislike the 'ugly' choreography of Vaslav Nijinsky. The volatile, bisexual Nijinsky is in a strained relationship with the much older Sergei Diaghilev, the Ballet Russes' charismatic but manipulative impresario. Public expectation is extremely high after Nijinsky's success in 'L'apres-midi d'un faune'. Finally, 'The Rite of Spring' premieres to a gossip-loving, febrile, fashion-conscious Parisian audience sharply divided as to its merits.