New Zealand,
2003, 76 min
Shown in 2004
CREDITS
- dir
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Leanne Pooley
- prod
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Leanne Pooley, Shona McCullagh
- cam
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John Cavill, Simon Raby
- editor
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Tim Woodhouse
- mus
-
David Long
- source
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Spacific Films, 9 Lemington Rd., Westmere, Auckland, New Zealand. EMAIL: lpooley@ihug.co.nz.
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COMMENTS
Shown with Crystal Harvest. Leanne Pooley in person.
OTHER
Halfway through this self-reflexive documentary, dancer Douglas Wright says, “Why am I doing this? I don’t want people to know all this about me at all.... I want to share my work with people. And the work is not out there, and it’s not being shared. So I’m doing this because you’ve agreed that we’ll show some of the films. It seems that there has to be a kind of—metaphorical pound of flesh.” Indeed, his work is haunting, and the pound of flesh quite provocative. Wright danced and choreographed for Limbs (New Zealand), the Paul Taylor Dance Company (New York) and DV8 Physical Theatre (London) before founding his own company. Archival footage of his work, including two late pieces centered on the interrelationship between projected film and live dance, is interwoven with reminiscences of Wright’s three self-wounding “careers” as gymnast, drug addict and dancer. Wright, living with HIV since 1990, has announced his retirement from dance. But through this film and his forthcoming literary memoir Ghost Dance, his work will have a chance to haunt new audiences.
—Sylvia Swift
FACTOID #49
Some of the filmmakers whose works screened in our New Directors series include Cinda Firestone, Susan Sontag, Shu Shuen, Conrad Rooks, Shirley Clarke, Sandro Franchina, and Mitsuo Yanagimachi. This series, which began in 1965, was a predecessor to the New Directors series at Lincoln Center, which started in 1971.
