Film

For the past five years, simmering in the background of my artistic practice, I have been hard at work on a feature documentary dance film that touches many politically urgent, personal places in my own life. Currently in post-production, I am raising funds to complete the film by 2024:

HELP US REACH OUR $50,000 FUNDRAISING GOAL! 

Everything You Have Is Yours is inspired by the story and award-winning work of choreographer Hadar Ahuvia. Hadar is the granddaughter of Zionist ‘kibbutzniks,’ collectivist pioneers who paved the way for Israel’s statehood. Through the prism of Israeli folk dance, Hadar cracks open the founding mythologies of Zionism to reckon with the erasure, displacement, and racism folded into Israel’s history.

The film’s braided narrative weaves poetic connections and a multiplicity of voices— centering dance as a transformative medium for resistance, reclamation, grieving, and healing. In addition to Hadar, the story features artistic portraits of New York City dance artists Mor Mendel, Ze’eva Cohen, Gil Sperling, lily bo shapiro, Freedom Dabka Group and zavé martohardjono with other guest appearances.

Our story takes place in the present. The ongoing occupation and dispossession of Palestinians continues to be taboo within US mainstream media and amongst politicians— Democrats and Republicans alike. At the same time, with the growth of white nationalism, antisemitism is on the rise. This film is a fearless portrait of a generation’s disillusionment with Zionism at a time of urgent reckoning. Through embodiment and testimony, American-Jewish, Israeli-Jewish, and Palestinian-American dancers and allies bring their cultural lineages to life.

Video: Mor Mendel (L) and Hadar Ahuvia (R)

Director Tatyana Tenenbaum Producer Brighid Greene Consulting Producer Tracie Holder Rough Cut Editor Colin Nusbaum Score Avi Amon

SUPPORTED BY

 

– – VIDEOGRAPHY WORK – –

Through the camera I am drawn to the inextricable relationship of our lineages to our bodies and voices. For the past eight years I have been the in-house documentarian for Baryshnikov Arts Center. Through the lens, this work has taught me about framing, movement, focus, consent, vastness and intimacy. It has also been a creative doorway into short-form nonfiction storytelling. Other clients include Time Square Arts, Composers Now, The Cunningham Trust, Art Matters Foundation, Franklin Street Works, and countless independent artists in New York City. The following portfolio samples are some of the artists I am honored to witness:

zavé martohardjono ay.eye.ay (2021)
believe what they say that they intend to destroy us and fall back into your mind’s eye

From zavé: “This film reflects how dance in 2020 for me became a solitary ritual, so private I finally felt comfortable dancing in the open air for no one. My dances for no one happened spontaneously, impulsively on my roof or in the park by the river during night walks. They enabled communication with my ancestors and moved me through grief, confusion, and rage about the times we are surviving. The improvised dance and poem in this film, captured on camera by Tatyana, blends with footage I took of my altar and videos from my phone of wide skies I’ve watched from parks and beaches in Munsee Lenape/Canarsie land aka Brooklyn and snowy creeks I’ve walked along in Munsee Lenape land hours north of the city during the pandemic. Landscapes that facilitated reflection and reckoning.”

Jeffrey Gibson She Never Dances Alone (2020)

Documentation of Jeffrey Gibson’s multiscreen work in Times Square, as well as interviews with Gibson and his collaborators for a live event.

Dorothée Munyaneza Artist Profile (2017)

Resident artist Dorothée Munyaneza in conversation at BAC.

A walk in the Garden: Tonia Ko and Yasuno Miyauchi (2016)

Composers Now Creative Residents Tonia Ko and Yasuno Miyauchi discuss their collaborative work at the Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in the fall of 2016.

White Knuckle (2016)

Co-authored by Ander Mikalson and Carey Denniston
Performed by Kelsey Strauch, Barb Smith and Em Rooney
February 3 & 4, 2017. Kate Werble Gallery, New York, NY

North Shore (2015)

Documentation of live performance by Carey Denniston and Ander Mikalson. Performed by Nicole Ohr and Ryan Rockmore on August 14, 2015 at Moiety in Brooklyn, NY.

More work available on the Baryshnikov Arts Center Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/bacnyc where I am the resident videographer