Paired with this week’s classic dance musical West Side Story, Boredom is a choreographed contemporary dance piece which explores feelings of boredom and aimlessness. Juxtaposition is a major feature driving the film as a tension is created between stillness and motion, participation and indifference. This play with dance and rivalry makes it a perfect companion film for West Side Story, a film renowned for its tensions and rivalries.
Below we discuss inspiration and working with dancers on film with the filmmakers of Boredom, Director Lara Oundjian & Choreographer Kaitlyn Ramsden.
CPFF: Tell us about the conception of Boredom. Where did the idea originate?
LO/KR: Boredom originated from an exploration of the state and sensation of being bored. It also came from an interest in the temporal differences between seeing dance live and seeing dance on screen. Watching dance live you see a sequence continuously from start to finish. In film the sequence can be broken up and remixed. In this film the dancers exist on these two temporal planes – one executes her sequence in real time and the other's sequence is modified through jumps and cuts. We were interested in having bodies moving in two different temporal realms but in the same physical space. To us this experience mimics the warped relationship bodies have to time when they experience boredom.
CPFF: Boredom is paired with one of the all-time great dance musicals, West Side Story. Are you a fan? Do you have other favourite dance movies?
LO/KR: Boredom is created by two people: one of us has a nostalgic love for West Side Story, the other one finds the treatment of Puerto Rican New Yorkers to be essentializing and problematic. One of us likes Rosa by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, and the other likes Une Femme est Une Femme by Jean Luc Godard, a film that is inspired by American musical theatre.
CPFF: The two dancers in Boredom are impressively in sync - what was it like working with professional dancers for this film?
LO/KR: Both filmmakers are professional dancers and have experience working with amazing dance artists of different styles and backgrounds. Kiera Hill and Eryn Tempest are delightful and hardworking, and their bodies directly inspired the movement in the film.
Boredom screens alongside West Side Story at Christie Pits Film Festival on August 13th, 2017.