Film premiere is highlight of conversation on youth issues across generations
Bellow Falls, VT- A docu-dance film project, Action Conversations: Bellows Falls, is reaching its culmination this spring with its official premiere screening on Thursday, March 6, at 7 p.m. at the Bellows Falls Opera House. It will be the first time the final cut has been shown in a movie theater. The event is open to the public at no charge.
The showing of the film, a collaboration between Vermont Performance Lab and Youth Services, will be coupled with a dialogue between local youth and audience members about growing up in Windham County and ways in which the community can ensure that youth have the supports they need to grow up to be healthy, empowered and contributing members of society.
In addition to hearing from local youth who were part of the filming, internationally known LA-based choreographer, Victoria Marks, who directed the “action conversations” workshop and film, will be speaking about the project.
“Listen to your community and find out where there needs to be a conversation,” Marks told VPL Director Sara Coffey when the community-based project discussion began four years ago. Marks visited Windham County three times over 18 months to research and plan for Action Conversations: Bellows Falls. In June 2012, she returned with LA-based documentary filmmaker Ann Kaneko to embark on the project that brought young and adult women from the community into an “action conversation.”
“Our hope for the project to help bridge a perceived gap between adults and youth in Bellows Falls, and I believe that this residency with Vic Marks helped initiate a conversation and some trust that I hope will continue beyond the project and the film,” stated Sara Coffey, Director of Vermont Performance Lab.
Coffey is now busy positioning the film to be shown not only locally but nationally so that it will have a life and impact far beyond the duration of the project itself. VPL will be submitting it to various independent film festivals including the dance on camera film festival, the LUNA Festival and others.
Choreographer Marks employs movement as a powerful tool for self-expression and enjoys being inserted into a civic dialogue. Her "action conversation" methodology offers avenues of self-exploration and positive expression to help participants frame their relationships with themselves, their families and communities.
For the five teen women who participated in Action Conversations: Bellows Falls, the project served as part of their job training with Youth Services’ summer youth employment program. The five adult women donate 60 hours of their summer to participate with the youth on the project.
“We were especially excited to be able to work with Vermont Performance Lab to place this project in Bellows Falls, where the gap between marginalized young people and the community at large is particularly wide,” explained Youth Services Director Julie Davenson, who will give an update on Youth Services during the March 6 event. “We were thrilled to provide an opportunity for these young women to experience working with two powerful female artists like Vic Marks and Ann Kaneko.”
Funding support for this event came in part from Chroma Technology, the National Endowment for the Arts, and numerous local donors.
For more information, call Youth Services at (802) 257-0361 or visit www.youthservicesinc.org. You can see a behind-the-scenes video on the project at FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nanci Leitch
Nanci.leitch@youthservicesinc.org
802-257-0361 (office)
802-258-8348
Film premiere is highlight of conversation on youth issues across generations
Bellow Falls, VT- A docu-dance film project, Action Conversations: Bellows Falls, is reaching its culmination this spring with its official premiere screening on Thursday, March 6, at 7 p.m. at the Bellows Falls Opera House. It will be the first time the final cut has been shown in a movie theater. The event is open to the public at no charge.
The showing of the film, a collaboration between Vermont Performance Lab and Youth Services, will be coupled with a dialogue between local youth and audience members about growing up in Windham County and ways in which the community can ensure that youth have the supports they need to grow up to be healthy, empowered and contributing members of society.
In addition to hearing from local youth who were part of the filming, internationally known LA-based choreographer, Victoria Marks, who directed the “action conversations” workshop and film, will be speaking about the project.
“Listen to your community and find out where there needs to be a conversation,” Marks told VPL Director Sara Coffey when the community-based project discussion began four years ago. Marks visited Windham County three times over 18 months to research and plan for Action Conversations: Bellows Falls. In June 2012, she returned with LA-based documentary filmmaker Ann Kaneko to embark on the project that brought young and adult women from the community into an “action conversation.”
“Our hope for the project to help bridge a perceived gap between adults and youth in Bellows Falls, and I believe that this residency with Vic Marks helped initiate a conversation and some trust that I hope will continue beyond the project and the film,” stated Sara Coffey, Director of Vermont Performance Lab.
Coffey is now busy positioning the film to be shown not only locally but nationally so that it will have a life and impact far beyond the duration of the project itself. VPL will be submitting it to various independent film festivals including the dance on camera film festival, the LUNA Festival and others.
Choreographer Marks employs movement as a powerful tool for self-expression and enjoys being inserted into a civic dialogue. Her "action conversation" methodology offers avenues of self-exploration and positive expression to help participants frame their relationships with themselves, their families and communities.
For the five teen women who participated in Action Conversations: Bellows Falls, the project served as part of their job training with Youth Services’ summer youth employment program. The five adult women donate 60 hours of their summer to participate with the youth on the project.
“We were especially excited to be able to work with Vermont Performance Lab to place this project in Bellows Falls, where the gap between marginalized young people and the community at large is particularly wide,” explained Youth Services Director Julie Davenson, who will give an update on Youth Services during the March 6 event. “We were thrilled to provide an opportunity for these young women to experience working with two powerful female artists like Vic Marks and Ann Kaneko.”
Funding support for this event came in part from Chroma Technology, the National Endowment for the Arts, and numerous local donors.
For more information, call Youth Services at (802) 257-0361 or visit www.youthservicesinc.org See background video at http://vermontperformancelab.org/past-artists/victoria-marks/victoria-video
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