Set in an auditorium on a Saturday morning, a group of women are learning to be romantic.
Based on Miranda July's short story "It was Romance", Romance creates an illuminating meeting point between the works of July and Pina Bausch. Resulting from filmmaker Samantha Shay's Fulbright Scholarship at Tanztheater Wuppertal, and in collaboration with one of the company's youngest and first transgender dancer, Romance also centers around how Naomi Brito’s transition was inspired by her encounter with the roles of women, as she observed them, in the repertory of Pina Bausch.
Shot on 16mm film in Pina Bausch's iconic and aging Lichtburg rehearsal studio, this piece walks the line between fiction and reality, dance and documentary, in the same way Bausch's deeply cathartic, and often autobiographical work did. Romance is a fertile intergenerational dialogue between past, present and future, and, through a fresh and powerful encounter, assures that the power of an aging legacy is never ending.
CREDITS:
Director
Samantha Shay
Adapted from the short story “It was Romance” by Miranda July
Created in collaboration with, and performed by
Naomi Brito, Emily Castelli, Marissa Chibas, Taylor Drury, Heather Ehlers, Claudia Ortiz Arraiza, Julie Shanahan, Ekaterina Shushakova and Julie Anne Stanzak
A Source Material Production
Producer
Julie Runge
Original Music by
Sara Flindt
Director of Photography
Constanza Sandoval
Editor
Samantha Shay
Costume Designer
Angela Trivino
Props Designer
Fien Lute
Line Producer
Athina Liakopolou
Director of Finance
Stephanie Regina
Assistant Director
Cinthia Konopacki
1st Assistant Camera
Marja Vormann
2nd Assistant Camera
Tom Ridilenir
Gaffer
Chantal Bergemann
Sound
Tarik Badaoui
Hair & Make-up
Mai Ahn
Costume Assist
Anna Lenna Dresia
Colorist
Silvia Grav
Catering
Mangi Mangi Wuppertal & Schimmerlos Deli
Set Photography
Saga Sig
Titles
FISK
PAST & UPCOMING SCREENINGS, & AWARDS:
Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 25th, 2023
September 15th -16th, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
October 12th, in Perth, Australia
Barcelona, Spain, October 18th, 2023
*Award: Outstanding Achievement in Dance Film
Dance on Camera Presented by Film at Lincoln Center
New York, New York, USA, February 2024
Cologne, Germany, March 17th, 2024
Germany / the Netherlands, February/March 2024
Nice International Film Festival Nice
France, May 2024
