Cannibalizing the Conductor is a hybrid film that combines dance with narrative and documentary filmmaking techniques to encourage deep observation of trance. Upheld for an extended duration, a group of performers improvise in various lucid states that are altered by imaginative, movement and vocal-based tasks. Each performer moves and is moved by the camera. Interacting with each other and the camera itself, they engage with the filmic gaze to celebrate their own agency, while disrupting the monocular focus of the camera lens. They get out of their own way to channel newly uncovered knowledge through the forms of music, dance, sound, and ultimately the eye of the camera.

Credits

• Concept & Realization : Emma W. Howes, Justin F. Kennedy
• Camera : Derek Howard
• Camera Assistance: Dino Rekanovic
• Additional Cinematography: Bíborka Béres, Vladimir Gurewich, Ogemdi Ude
• Editors: Derek Howard, Emma W. Howes, Justin F. Kennedy
• Color grading: Artem Stretovych
• Music: Anand Wilder
• Foley: Dan Timmons
• Sound mix: Henry Uhl
• Makeup and Prosthetics: Caterina Veronesi
• Costumes: Marta Martino
• Performers: Onur Agbaba, Vik Bayer, Bíborka Béres, Gabriele Christian, Emma W. Howes, Masoumeh Jalalieh, Justin F. Kennedy, Alireza Keymanesh, Julek Kreutzer, Janne Kummer, Dorota Michalak, Nural Moser, Martha Pasakopoulou, Rafał Pierzyński, Caspar Rode, Julia Rubies, Theresa Scheinecker, Valentino Skarwan, Ogemdi Ude, Xenia Vlachou-Koghilaki, Christa Wall
• Performance Research: Fernando Cabral, Anna Dunlop, Deva Schubert, Tyra Wigg
• ImPulsTanz : Marina (Fio) Losin, Rio Rutzinger

Exhibition History

• Cannibalizing the Conductor
  2023
  Experimental Film Fest
  Toronto, CA
• Cannibalizing the Conductor
  2023
  ImPulsTanz
  Vienna, AT
• Dance Film Short Award
  2023
  Kiez Berlin Film Festival
  Berlin, DE
• Cannibalizing the Conductor
  2022
  Moviemento
  Berlin, DE
• CAMming: Collective Auto-Mythologizing for the Camera
  2021
  ImPulsTanz
  Vienna, AT