Two years of study and many iterations led to the creation of a four-minute-and-twelve-second short film set to music. The project earned its place with pride at the Riurau Film Festival’s Dance on Camera event in New York, now in its 51st edition. Among nearly three hundred global shorts, this Spanish entry stood out as a notable selection and was scheduled to screen on the festival’s final day, February 13, in one of the Lincoln Center venues.
This dance work was developed during the Marina Alta Dance Film Lab, under the auspices of Riurau Film School. It appears as a single, non-competition piece in the festival lineup and was crafted using a method that captures multiple viewpoints. The piece repeats scenes—72 times in this production—with diverse camera angles that are later aligned to ensure continuity as fragments are reassembled into a cohesive whole, a technique described by the creators. Isabel Bilbao, a driving force behind the film festival and a partner in this multi-author project, helped shape a bold choreography that nods to the solos of Dabke, a traditional Oriental dance form.
Joan Bernat Pineda, a dancer and choreographer, directed the Dansa Film Lab’s contribution. The lab’s mandate was to push the cinematographic potential of the dance film, prompting six filmmakers to work in unison as the dancer moved through up to seventy-two complete repetitions. Each take explored different paths, ranges, and framings, all while the accompanying sound design guided the experience. The film’s choreography was shaped by Marta Lorenzi, Isabel De Piero, Yolanda Medina, Cristina Lozano, Carmen Zaragoza, and Bilbao, who employed fragmentation and multiple perspectives to enhance movement continuity.
The visual language is heightened by the effect of light against a dark atmosphere. The music, produced under the guidance of cinematographer José María Hortelano, complements the imagery with a score and vocal contributions from Rafael Arnal, a musicologist, dancer, and director. The soundtrack draws on a tapestry of Muslim, Christian, and Orthodox motifs, offering a rhythmic counterpoint to the uninterrupted flow of the images and symbolizing unity among diverse cultures, peoples, and faiths that have coexisted in the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula for centuries.
festivals
The Riurau Film Festival operates through a collaboration between the Valencian Institute of Culture and the local municipalities of Denia, Xàbia/Jávea, Jesús Pobre, and La Xara in the Marina Alta region. As part of the Dance on Camera program, the festival, which has run for more than fifty years, presents documentaries, feature films, innovative shorts, and artistically vibrant installations. It also features filmmaker meetups, student and community programs, and events that fuse cinema with contemporary visual art.