DIRT
2020
Available for showings
SCREENDANCE
For Wilkins, the making of screendances is at once emergent, alive, and continually evolving. It is an organic extension of his art investigations and making that affords him an alternate platform for the creation of intermedia projects – projects resulting from the merging of a wide range of artistic disciplines, including film, video, music, design, and technology.
Although film and video has long been a part of his work, the onset of a pandemic reality in spring 2020 ignited a renewed interest in the creation of projects that are meant to be witnessed and experienced as screendances, and projects not necessarily intended to be incorporated into live performance.
Dirt: The Trailer
ABOUT
Through the fusion of text, movement, layered visuals, and sound, this work presents a meditative exploration of identity and Blackness in a heightened time of unrest and uprisings fueled by issues of police brutality and systemic racism in America.
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COLLABORATION TEAM
Concept, Direction, Text, & Performance Helanius J. Wilkins
Video Design, Direction, & Editing Roma Flowers
Original Sound Composition, Arrangement, & Performance Andy Hasenpflug
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FIRST PUBLIC RELEASE
August 12, 2020 CU Denver’s Newman Center’s Midweek Boost, Local Spotlight
SCREENING
SELECTIONS
International Art Film Festival (IAFFest)
2020, London, UK
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kNOwBOX dance Film Festival
2020, Seoul, South Korea Premier
2020, Dallas, TX USA Premier
2021, Oaxaca, Mexico
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ScreenDance Miami Festival produced by Miami Light Project!
2021, Miami, FL USA
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The 33rd Minimalen Short Film Festival
2021, Norway
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Alabama Screendance Festival
2021, Birmingham, AL USA
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GRRL HAUS CINEMA - Gimme 5 Series
2021, Cambridge, MA USA
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Maryland Youth Ballet - Black History Month Virtual Performance Series
2021, Silver Spring, MD USA
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Photometria In Motion
2021, Ioannina, Greece
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Braga International Video Dance Festival
2021, Braga, Portugal
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Kinesthesia
2021, London, UK
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Art of Brooklyn Film Festival
2021, Brooklyn, New York, USA
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The Fine Arts Film Festival/ViCA Films
2021, Venice, CA USA
AWARDS
Alternative Film Festival Fall 2020
Short Category - Best North American Experimental
2020, Toronto, Canada
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New York World Film Festival
Best Experimental Short Film
2021, New York, New York, USA
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Art of Brooklyn Film Festival
Best Musical Score
2021,Brooklyn, New York, USA
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The Fine Arts Film Festival/ViCA Films
Best Experimental Film
2021, Venice, CA USA
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REVIEWS
"Tackling the fully present and certainly hotbed topics of police brutality and sense of identity that’s under attack in the Black community remains no less than a daunting but utterly necessary task in this time of social upheaval. Writer/director/producer Helanius J. Wilkins and director/producer Roma Flowers dive wholeheartedly, candidly, and with bluntly skillful finesse into this entire plight via their effort “Dirt”. Another project utilizing the mediums of imagery, movement, and music in tandem, we are given a look at these struggles via intelligently produced pictures using the sediment the effort’s title indicates as an allegorical tool depicting the community’s hardships while also promoting through it all growth, roots, stronger foundations, and a people rediscovering the means to branch out and thrive."
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Read the full review here.
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