This experimental film takes audiences behind the scenes, into the studio, and into the air with acclaimed disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light as they create Wired.
Kinetic Light has announced the premiere of the new documentary-dance film One + One Make Three -- featuring dance artists Jerron Herman, Laurel Lawson, and Alice Sheppard -- set to air May 11 at 8pm EDT as part of the ALL ARTS Past, Present, Future festival. This experimental film, directed by Katherine Helen Fisher of Safety Third Productions, takes audiences behind the scenes, into the studio, and into the air with acclaimed disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light as they create Wired, an aerial dance work. One + One Make Three will premiere on ALL ARTS and multiple accessible versions will be available online (https://allarts.org).
One + One Make Three embraces and integrates access for both broadcast and virtual presentations. The ALL ARTS broadcast version of One + One Make Three includes American Sign Language (ASL) by artist and interpreter Brandon Kazen-Maddox, open captions, and optional enhanced audio description by Cheryl Green and the Kinetic Light artists. Four different accessible versions of the film will be available online (details below).
Kinetic Light's ongoing research and development of aesthetic artistic accessibility can be flexibly experienced in this film through two streams of ASL interpretation, multi-voiced enhanced audio description, and integrated open captions. Kinetic Light crafts these access approaches as an integral part of the company's art, in collaboration with other disabled artists and community members. Access offerings are intentionally designed to be as challenging, provocative, and beautiful as the art itself.
"We are incredibly pleased to share One + One Make Three with the world, and Kinetic Light is honored to be featured in the ALL ARTS Past, Present, Future festival," commented Alice Sheppard, founder and Artistic Director of Kinetic Light. "Access is art. It is integral and essential to our work and the world. I am so grateful to the entire Kinetic Light team, to fellow artists Laurel Lawson, Jerron Herman, Michael Maag, to our film director Katherine Helen Fisher, and to the many, many collaborators who made this film possible."
For the inaugural year of the Past, Present, Future festival, ALL ARTS invited three choreographers to partner with filmmakers of their choice and produce films exploring what past, present, and future mean to them and their work. In addition to Kinetic Light's One + One Make Three, the festival also includes A.I.M by Kyle Abraham's If We Were a Love Song (directed by Dehanza Rogers) and Pam Tanowitz Dance's DANCERS (Slightly Out of Shape) (directed byLiz Sargent) which premiere May 9 and 10 respectively at 8pm EDT on ALL ARTS. In consultation with the Kinetic Light team, ALL ARTS decided to make the entire festival accessible by including captions and audio description for all films, and ensuring that marketing efforts are also accessible.
Notes Diane Masciale, Co-Executive in Charge of ALL ARTS: "As with the other choreographers ALL ARTS invited to participate in the Past, Present, Future festival, Kinetic Light was selected because of the undeniable impact of their work. In addition to being blown away by the film that was created, we are grateful for the crucial role Kinetic Light has played in advocating for the entire festival to be more accessible. They've inspired and guided us in establishing new practices for increasing the accessibility of the other films in the festival and future programming on ALL ARTS."
One + One Make Three was filmed in 2020 during a bubble residency at Z Space in San Francisco, CA, while Kinetic Light continued developing their latest work, Wired, in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Wired is an immersive work that explores the gendered, raced, and disability histories of barbed wire and traces the fine line between "us" and "them." In the film, dancers partner, spin, and soar as they reflect on art, dance, and disability as a creative force. Kinetic Light artists Herman, Lawson, and Sheppard are the featured on-screen performers and interviewees, and were integrally involved in creative and access development. For Wired, Kinetic Light has collaborated with The Chicago Flyhouse, Inc. for rigging and Adrenalin Dreams for bungees.
One + One Make Three will air on ALL ARTS on May 11 at 8pm EDT (NYC region, check local listings) with ASL and Open Captions and optionally available Enhanced Audio Description.
The film will be available online at https://allarts.org/programs/past-present-future/
The film will be available in four versions online: ASL + Open Captions + Audio Description; ASL only; Open Captions + Audio Description; and Open Captions only. All versions include optional Closed Caption transcript. A downloadable audio file of the Audio Description and transcript will also be available.
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Kinetic Light Artistic Director: Alice Sheppard
Film Director: Katherine Helen Fisher
Artists: Jerron Herman, Laurel Lawson, Alice Sheppard
Choreographer: Alice Sheppard
Choreographic Collaborators: Jerron Herman, Laurel Lawson
ASL Interpreter, Deaf Culture Consultant; Subtitles: Brandon Kazen-Maddox
Film Production Company: Safety Third Productions
Producer: Shimmy Boyle
Director of Photography: Devon Donis
Archival Producer: Caroline Haydon
ASL Director of Photography: Joe Foley
ASL Gaffer: Quinton Carr-Goodwin
Acrobatic Rigger: Catherine A. Nelson
Creative Director: Alice Sheppard
Director of Access Design: Laurel Lawson
Audio Describer: Cheryl Green
Augmented Audio Description: Kinetic Light Artists
Deaf Culture Consultant: Mel Chua
Subtitles: Body Language Productions
Score Composer & Performer: Vanessa Gould
Editor, Grid Concept Designer: John Walter
Theatrical Lighting Design: Colm McNally
Title Design: Emily Kwong
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