Bodies With Disability Are in Focus at MOVING BODY - MOVING IMAGE Festival in Person and Online

2022 MOVING BODY - MOVING IMAGE Festival, a biennial presentation of dance films centering around issues of social justice, returns to Barnard College's Department of Dance / Movement Lab. Conceived and curated by the accomplished choreographer, dancer, teacher, and filmmaker Gabri Christa, this year's edition takes on The Moving Body With Disabilites.

The festival features an installation comprising of four video works, available on view at the Millstein Center at Barnard College from March 28 thru April 3; and a live event, held on Sunday, April 3 at Barnard College's Glicker Milstein Theatre in the Diana Center (both buildings located on the university's main campus - 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027).

The live event on April 3 will consist of two programs of shorts films and a screening of a feature documentary Vision Portraits, followed by a conversation with director Rodney Evans and dancer Kayla Hamilton - two visually impaired artist who will discuss audio descriptions for film and movement.

The April 3 live event is free and open to the public but registration is required. To RSVP, click here.

All of the festival content (including a recording of the discussion with special guests and festival film submissions not featured in the screenings) will be available for viewing April 4 - April 11 on the wesite. For more information, including all artist bios and film synposes, visit www.movingbodymovingimage.com.

Festival video trailer: https://vimeo.com/685998500

Since its inception in 2018, each edition of MOVING BODY - MOVING IMAGE has focused on different subject matter: the first festival highlighted BIPOC bodies on screen while 2020 online event (which reached close to 12,000 audience members from 61 countries worldwide) featured projects dealing with aging. The 2022 presentation - which consist of a live event and a video installation in New York City, as well as the online content available to global audiences - takes on disability, with a special block of programing devoted to visual impairment and the artists who live through this experience. Among the highlights are: Vision Portraits, a feature documentary which chronicles the creative paths of blind and visually impaired artists, including a photographer John Dugdale, writer Ryan Knighton, dancer Kayla Hamilton, and the film's director, Rodney Evans; Sense 8, by the visionary Scottish director Katerina McPherson, in which she presents a multi-perspective experience of contact improvisation dance; as well as a short films featured in the installation section,Yo Obsolete - a tale of a disabled child, directed by Christopher "Unpezverde" Núñez. Other noteworthy selections include Phoenix Dance, a heroic journey of transformation and healing featuring the NYC-based dancer Homer Avila (1955-2004), choreographed by Alonzo King; and One + One Makes Three, directed by Katherine Helen Fisher and choreographed by Alice Sheppard.

The festival founder and curator Gabri Christa explains: "My personal connection to disability comes from my mother who was a Special Ed teacher and worked with teenagers with physical and mental impairment. I also have members of my extended family who are living with disabilities; my mother is now wheelchair-bound. I started Moving Body - Moving Image Festival to give voice to different social justice issues, to think deeply about them, to make them visible. I seek to create a better understanding, through art, of the people perceived as "the other." I am also interested in films that show people and themes not covered by the mainstream media. I strive to make sure all our juried selections highlight the central theme - this year, persons living with disabilities - and that the people on screen have full agency in the work they are a part of."

Both 2018 and 2020 festival programs continue to tour internationally; the last edition, presented exclusively online in the wake of COVID, attracted a huge and diverse viewership. "We are stunned by how much demand there was for the festival films amog the global audiences," Christa explains. "Also, I hope that the pandemic isolation brought greater awareness around social inequity and perhaps more understanding of racism, ageism and ableism," she concludes.