Let’s see, is this day 942 or day 59? Well, it depends on how you look at it. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, it’s coming at me and not going away, so its day 59 – 59 days to go before my feature film “SOLO: 1X2″ premières at the Southern Theatre on the West Bank. Yipes! Edit, Edit, Edit.

“SOLO: 1X2” is a dance documentary that follows six Minnesota dancers over a two year period as each of them creates a personal Solo with the aid of a choreographer they commissioned. It’s a film about dedication, the process of creation, and the nature of people. It’s actually about a lot of other things as well. The problem now is how to eliminate some of these things. I find them all incredibly interesting, but something’s got to go. I sometimes think that these “interesting things’ have a life of their own and they are gathering around the flickering light of the film projector trying to leap out of the darkness onto the screen, and I stand there, the guardian at the gate, admitting this idea because she has a nice smile and denying access to 20 others with chipped teeth. Ah, Power – I love it.

Abdo Sayegh – In Performance

The Beginning: in the 1980’s, I collaborated with composer Mary Ellen Childs on a couple of multi-media installations and performance works that focused on how music performance is seen. We have stayed friends and were having lunch one day, and I mentioned that I was looking for a project. Well, besides composing amazing music, she is the McKnight Fellowship Program Directer the Southern Theater. The Southern administers The McKnight Fellowship for Choreographers and Dancers. Besides the fellowship, the dancers get the opportunity to commission a choreographer of their choice to set a solo on them. Every two years, the Southern presents a concert of the six (three per year) fellows, performing these uniquely perso”SOLO: 1X2nal works. Mary Ellen was fascinated by the process of creating these Solos. As she described it to me, I knew that this was the project I was looking for. I shot my first interview 942 day ago. It has been a great journey. The dancers are incredible people and their work is stunning, but the process of creating the solo is the thing I find most fascinating – probably because I’m a creator myself and watching someone struggle to create is just inspiring to me. 59 days to go.

Tags: documentary, independent film, McKnight Fellowship, Minnesota Made

This post was written by Robert Hammel, Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Directing, Events, Film Production. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.