Please tell us about yourself, and what kind of pieces you have made in the past.
 
Augenblick : In a way, there was no past for us as a group before Su misura.
The constitution of our artistic collective Augenblick in Genova actually dates back to summer 2014, when we decided to submit a dance film to La danza in 1 minuto. This is the 60 seconds videodance competition that we won the following November in Torino, just thanks to Su misura. Anyway if we focus on past activities of Augenblick’s four members, we can surely highlight some differences and some common traits as well: Alessandra Elettra Badoino is a theatrical set designer and performer, specialized as a Danzeducatore®; Marina Giardina is a dancer and actress, she’s part of Retedanzacontempoligure and Compagnia Filò (between dance and theatre); Fabio Poggi is a performer and has a PhD in Urbanism (Iuav Venice, Paris), he wrote on the performativity of space; Marco Longo is a filmmaker, he created several short films and web videos.
So, Su misura was sort of waiting for us somewhere at the crossing of all these different disciplines and interests. And Augenblick, too, can be described as the final result of a domino effect. In fact what happened was just like a domino. In August 2014 Fabio gave Marina a phone call on La danza in 1 minuto competition. Marina showed her interest and thought about involving Alessandra in the project. Alessandra subsequently informed a friend of her, Marco, a young filmmaker that Fabio and Marina had never met before... Augenblick was on its way!
 
 
What does the title Su misura mean?
 
Augenblick : Su misura is an Italian expression, literally linked to the act of dressmaking. Its English translation is tailored or tailor-made.
Tailored, as it is defined by the dictionary, means: made for a particular purpose, designed according to some specific requirements, on the basis of specific measurements (shoulder, waist, chest, etc.), well cut and fitted.
This meaning arose our interest, and also some questions: when and why does a dress (here, role) fit perfectly on someone? Is this “perfect fitting” a real possibility? The dress metaphor was immediately evident, that’s why our first step has then been to switch those questions into a new research on gesture, dance, storytelling and filmmaking.
What we also liked is the sound of those two words put together, su and misura, as they reminded us of a somewhat far, foreign language.
 
 
Clothing seems to be an important motif of the film. What is your point of view on the relation between dance and clothing?
 
Augenblick : An important starting point for Su misura was the search of artisanal jobs whose movements and gestures potentially suggest a dancing attitude. This is how we found an interesting “dance” in the way a tailor uses his hands while sewing or cutting a sample. In a way, also when you raise your arms to try on a dress something dancing starts to move around.
Of course it's not a film about clothing but it's true – and here’s another important element – that the daily ritual of getting dressed, or of changing our dresses, are ways to reinvent ourselves and to transform other people’s perception of us. For instance, if you pay attention to the two female characters’ dresses you can notice that they’re just the same but the colours change, while one is black the other one is white. It was another way to observe and to film how similar or identical things change when seen from different perspectives. Because the whole film is a game of perspectives. Who is watching who?
The three characters, are they seeing something really happening inside a tailor’s shop, or is this just a memory of their own, maybe an ancient dream? Spatial choices, too, and the dramaturgy of space that followed tend to underline this suspension between a real dimension (the shop, the interior) and an imaginary one (the hills, the exterior).
What the public apparently sees is the classic love triangle, a well known cinematographic theme. And there are traces of all this, of course, but this triangle gave us the opportunity of developing a peculiar research that was and is not only cinematographic or choreographic but lies in a space in between.
 
 
I believe this piece was originally made for a 1 minute dance film contest. What did you have in mind when creating such a short dance film?
What kind of gimmicks or techniques have you used in it?
 
Augenblick : Our aim was to direct this short film in a simple but millimetric way, in order to convey all the different glances and perspectives within one minute’s time. Besides, we intended to keep a bit of ambivalence in Su misura, in fact many viewers actually enjoyed recognizing the dramatic elements as well as the playful moments. That is, drama and comedy.
From one side we focused on the majesty of close-ups and of b/w photography. From the other, we decided to reduce the number of frames per second in each shot, just to convey a slight sense of comic.
It was our homage to silent films that, after all, have much in common with performance and screendance.
 
 
If there were no given limit to the length of the film, how would it be like?
 
Augenblick : Perhaps this could sound a bit provocative, but we think that the events told in Su misura fit just right in a one minute film... Because what we wanted to tell was a series of moments, of glimpses on interior - exterior landscapes crossing somewhere.
Later on Su misura has been the source of inspiration for a new dance film, Still. The attempt we made there was not only to work on the border between film and dance, but also to tell more of the characters, of their past and their future. However in this case we’re currently examining the most suitable ways of promoting it, because of a much longer duration and a very different narrative rhythm.
 
 
It has been 6 years since this film was created in 2014. Have your perspective on this work changed in any way?
 
Su misura (2014) was born under a lucky star. It had a great reception and was selected by several festivals around the world, but the main reason why we watch it every now and then is that it’s our very first work together. And as such it still keeps a sense of mystery - namely that which is not explainable about favourable encounters. In fact, even today this film reminds us of a meeting between four different people, but also between disciplines: dance on one side (Alessandra, Marina and Fabio who had already known each other for some years) and cinema on the other (Marco, who had previously worked with Alessandra).  Afterwards our activity continued. In 2015 FuoriFormato, a new festival on contemporary dance and video dance, was created in Genova by Teatro Akropolis, RETE Danzacontempoligure (live dance) and our team, Augenblick (dance film section: Stories We Dance). In 2016 we shot /si:/, winner of the Jury Award and the Audience Award at 60seconds Festival, Copenaghen. Then in 2017 we had the opportunity to shoot a new dance film on the adventurous life of a 19th century Italian poet, Ugo Foscolo, on the verge between classic form and romantic spirit. In every film following Su misura, including the call and film selection we’ve made every year for Stories We Dance / FuoriFormato, we still recognize and look for some traces and elements from that first work of ours: the relationship between intimate and exterior landscapes; the attention to detail from an expressive and audiovisual point of view; the search of a movement - from the body or the camera - which is not stylised or decorative but brings a truth or at least a story.
 

Augenblick is a video dance and performance collective formed in 2014 in Genova (Italy) by Alessandra Elettra Badoino, Marina Giardina, Fabio Poggi and Marco Longo. In German, Augenblick means moment, instant.augenblick.it
In 2015 FuoriFormato, a new festival on contemporary dance and video dance, was created in Genova by Teatro Akropolis, RETE Danzacontempoligure (live dance) and our team, Augenblick (dance film section: Stories We Dance)fuoriformatofestival.it/swd
 
bio
Alessandra Elettra Badoino. Albenga, 1980. Theatrical set designer, performer. She specialized as a Danzeducatore®. 
 
Marina Giardina. Genova, 1970. Dancer, performer. Since 2009 she’s also been part of Compagnia Filò as an actress and author. 
 
Fabio Poggi. Santa Margherita Ligure, 1972. Teacher, PhD in Urbanism (Iuav, Venezia), author of various essays, performer. 
Marco Longo. Genova, 1986. Filmmaker, teacher and film critic, he graduated in Film Directing at Civica Scuola di Cinema, Milan.
 
 
works
- Su misura (Italy 2014, HD, 1:85.1, b/w, stereo, 1’)performers: Alessandra Elettra Badoino, Marina Giardina, Fabio Poggi camera and editing: Marco Longo supported by Officina Letteraria, Genova.

- /si:/ (Italy 2016, HD, 1.85:1, b/w, mute, 1’)performers: Alessandra Elettra Badoino, Marina Giardina, Fabio Poggi image: Fulvio Lombardi, Simone Mazzoleni, Elena Melloncelli editing: Marco Longo produced by Augenblick supported by Grand Hotel Miramare, Santa Margherita Ligure (Italy).
 
- Carte blanche (Italy 2017, HD, 1:77.1, color, stereo, 6’)performers: Alessandra Elettra Badoino, Marina Giardina, Fabio Poggi camera and editing: Marco Longo assistant editor: Fulvio Lombardi costume supervisor: Alessandro Osemont produced by Augenblick with the generous support of Stavros Niarchos Foundation in cooperation with Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3, Università degli Studi di Genova 

I read your commentary and learned that the two women are personas of a single person and that the child is a love-god. I saw the whole story being happening in someone's inner space. So I was curious about the unique atmosphere that the location. Where is this and why did you choose the place?
 
The place is in Wijnegem, Belgium. It was an industrial complex before until the worldwide well known art collector Axel Vervoordt bought it and transformed the entire place into an art platform. The venue itself was never used before for a shooting. The entire film crew had to sign they would not eat, drink or smoke during the shooting at the venue. Also the lightning could not be put inside, but outdoors, which was was a tremendous task. The reason is that six very precious 5th century buddha’s are in permanent expostion. So that place became almost sacred.To be able to shoot my symbolical film on that location was a tremendous bonus for the ambience of the film.
 

The word “love” is in the title and also mentioned repeatedly in the film. I also noticed the word "lecher" in the lyrics. Are all the “love” mentioned in this work about sexual love?
 
The lyrics are in Latin, English and Swedish. It is about love in all its aspects (Love exists by itself, it does not judge, it does not question, it just exists). The sexuality is only one form and does not exclude any other form, but is at the same time the other form as well. “Not even death shall obstruct my love for you"
 
 
You directed, produced, wrote the script, and even composed the music yourself. There are a lot of dance film directors, but I believe there aren’t so many who writes the music themselves. You could tell that the songs are essential for the piece to come together. Did you start from the music when you made this film? How were they composed?
 
Yes the music was the fundament for all. Also my rehearsals at the venue with the Swedish dancer Louise Peterhoff was essential as starting point. Although we rehearsed the dance scenes without music. Some of the music I changed after the film, to make it more fitting on certain scenes. But all was shot with the music in mind. Some pieces were performed during the shooting indeed, the Luna-Serena character is the actual singer (Claron McFadden) by the way. The dancer, especially in the large opening scene. can only express herself with her body, the other female character is most static and needs words. The young character, an old soul in the form here of a child, does not need words, she does not need expression, she is only present. 
 
 

My love for contemporary dance is not surprising as I come from a country where contemporary dance is most important and became a totally normal part of our general culture. Contemporary dance has been used in my country in opera, film and theatre since many decades. These interdisciplinary forms of expression became something we were raised with and it felt like always a totally natural thing to use them together.Most people will know me as a composer of contemporary opera however, what I actually am.When my record company proposed to make video material or a clip for a new album of mine that came out, I felt more like making a little film, although I did not have any experience at all. The thing is that via my publisher my music was very often used for ballet, film and audiovisual productions. I can not say I was always happy with the result I saw afterwards. This is perhaps the main reason I decided to shoot and make the film myself. A film based on my own music, so for once the music could not be misunderstood or misinterpreted, as the composer himself made the visual based on his work.I found out that directing a film does not differ much from directing or conducting a big music production. The people you work just need to trust you, and you need to earn that trust. Trust is the keyword. That is all actually. Nothing else.I did not get the chance anymore to direct another film. As the policy for getting fundings changed. And it was decided that opera composers should not make films anymore. Sad.But I am very happy that this one exists at least.Many thanks for your interest.
 

In  "Tickle me to death", I could see a woman dancing like a cat. Which parts of the cat's movement or character inspired the choreography?

I take that as a compliment although the film was inspired by the theatrical, physical acting in films from the 1920s, and therefore also the movement quality and choreography. Basically the film is an illustration of how it felt for me to move back to Denmark after living in New York for five years, and the difference between the highly extroverted American culture to the reserved and distant Scandinavian mentality. The stylistic choices were a response to the Danish film scene where social-realistic stories were predominant.I was aiming for the performance and choreography to be somewhere in between acting and contemporary dancing, which is why the three human performers come from different performance backgrounds: dance, circus and theater. The cat is the all-knowing observer in the film, and somehow becomes the wise, alter-ego of the woman. 
 

The scenery is beautiful, but it feels somewhat nonrepresentational and nostalgic. Where is the location and how were the scenes shot?
 
The film was shot in a small village in South Sweden and it was quite an amazing find. This village was built around 2000 in the style of medieval houses, and because it looks old but obviously is new, it feels like a movie set already - which added even more theater to the style, as well as a sense of timelessness. Even though there are people living there, you hardly see anyone on the street either, so after getting permission from the board of residents, it was fairly easy to shoot there.The scenes with the cat were shot on green screen.
 
 
In the second half of the film, I started to imagine that it's not just the women that is a cat but also the man, or maybe the cat has metamorphosed into a woman. If you don't mind, please tell us what metaphors or possibilities you set in this work?
 
The whole story is about a woman hunting for people to connect with. The only two people she encounters in the deserted town literally disappear in front of her, but the black cat is still present and observant. At one point crosses the street, as a sign of something bad that's about to happen, because the woman is about to be too intense with the man. What I wanted to convey is more the feeling of being alone in the desire to connect with other people.
 
 
A French film called "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain" got popular in Japan a while ago, so some Japanese audience would associate this kind of retro and cute in-world with France, but you are a Danish artist. What does this kind of world style mean to you?
 
I absolutely love "Amelie...", and I think the resemblance comes with the haircut. But my reference was Louise Brooks who was a famous movie star in the silent film era, a style icon and free-spirit breaking the conventional female role in society at the time, and she ended up alone because of it.
 

Maia Elisabeth Sørensen (DK) is a dance film artist with a background in dance and choreography currently residing in the Netherlands. Graduated from Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance (US) in 2007 and has since then specialised in dance film as a choreographer, director and editor.Maia has always had an affinity towards people on the margin of society and her current practice focuses on social topics, focusing on teenagers and their transformation from child to adult. She works with a combination of documentary and choreography for the camera, where she draws from her choreographic experience in her early works such as Tickle Me to Death (2010).
http://maiaelisabethsorensen.com/
 
 

About the title. It's more of an abstract title than a concrete one. What is this film “anti” to?
 
The idea of the short film starts from the notion of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, concepts that are part of Hegel's dialectic. These 3 elements are part of the spiral process in which reality is conceived.
This title: Thesis, antithesis, synthesis, seemed complex, theoretical and very explicit. Therefore, I chose Antithesis, although as you say, if you don't know the Hegel´s concept can be seen as an abstract title.
 
 
Depending on the way you look at it, the girls seem to be repeating the same time in that house. Could you tell us about the flow of time in this film, or the story itself?
 
Continuing with the previous question. Yes, indeed. There are 3 times, 3 women, 3 realities, 3 worlds. They coexist, they overcome and they repeat themselves.
I wanted to reflect the idea of this theory with the language of the body and the moving image.
The short film begins when the protagonist falls to the floor at the moment when she is changing a burned-out lamp. In the second that she has left of life this concept of spiral emerges.
The current time, that of the protagonist who changes the lamp is shooting in film and the dreamlike part, the fight between the 3 women is shooting on video. According to Hegel's theory, Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis are 3 phases of an evolutionary process of the human spirit that repeats itself towards the search for truth. They are three women who fight in that elastic and abstract time: the second that remains of her life. In this instant she is trying to understand who she is, who she was, what her true dimension is.
 
 
The makeup, floral dress and underwear costumes were impressive. Tell us your passion for costumes and fashion.
 
Together with the Art and Wardrobe Department we wanted the art direction of the short film will be in accordance with the dream and elastic time concept. We created a vision in which both, the costumes and the props and scenery had to have the same genre (fabric) and range of colors. The dresses, the pillows, the sheets were made by the Art Department. And we look for the underwear wardrobe in places of sale of vintage and old clothes, always with the precaution of respecting the range of colors that we were looking for. At the end, the work on the image of the film was very exhaustive.
 
 
There isn't much music used in the film, but the dissonant-like sounds seemed like music that the characters danced to. Were the choreography made to match those sounds?
 
Yes, indeed there is no music in the short film. We create a soundtrack that go with and at the same time interacts with the image. We also realized that was important to take direct sound. Generally, at that time, dance short films were mostly set to music, or the image was directly related to the music. I wanted to break with that, and for this reason I decided to take direct sound and create an original soundtrack but without any music. We put together the choreography with this concept and with some reference sound textures but the soundtrack was finalized after having the final cut of the short film. In fact I put together the sound design without having much experience in that but with the conviction of what I wanted and how I wanted to tell it.

Natalia de la Vega
 
Natalia de la Vega (Argentina) is an image and sound designer.
In 2011 she directed the short film Antithesis, awarded at several film festivals around the world.
She produced the films “El vals de los inútiles” (Chile-Arg) by Edison Cájas and “La Protagonista” by Clara Picasso and the short films “Salers” by Fernando Dominguez and “Al Silencio” by Mariano Cócolo.
In 2019 she founded the production company Navega Cine interested in hybrid formats and crossing languages.
Her productions received the support of INCAA, Fondo de Fomento Audiovisual(Chile), DOK Leipzig Market, Tribeca, BAL, Morelia Lab, Guadalajara Co-production Forum, LABEX, Doc Montevideo, Fidoc, among others.
Her films were awarded and selected at festivals such Clermont Ferrand, Locarno, Busan, ZINEBI, Indielisboa, Havana, Mar del Plata, BAFICI, Guadalajara, Sao Paulo, Toulouse, Biarritz, Jihlava, Valdivia, Festival dei Popoli, among others.
Natalia is part of FeministBillboard and alumni of Good Pitch and Talents BA.
 

Please tell us about you, and what kind of pieces you have made in the past.
 
Camiel Zwart : My name is Camiel Zwart, I studied directing on the Dutch film academy in Amsterdam. I manly work on documentary films but I also love to make dance films. The last documentary I made was about ageing as a goldmine and my last dance film was about meeting in a alley. I like to make films that are intimate, touching and sometime funny.
 
 
Train conductors are thought to be very businesslike in Japan, one of the last people you'd expect to start acting strangely. How and why did you come up with this moving train conductor?
 
Camiel Zwart : Thats funny to hear. I was in Japan 4 years ago and really fell in love with the country and the people. Even though you have a western life style it is a lot different from what we know in Europe. When I saw the train conductors for the first time I was amazed by there precision and almost dance like movement that look like they could control trains and people. That instant I decided that I would love to make a dance film about these conductors! First I thought of going back and making a documentary style dance film but in the end it became this fiction film.
 
 
Please tell us the meaning of the title. Is 13 used as an unlucky number?
 
Camiel Zwart : In Europe the number 13 is very unlucky number and therefore you often have buildings that has no 13th floor or train stations that do not have a platform 13. I choose this name because the main character gets stuck in a place that does not exist.
 
 
You have used several locations. I could tell that some are in Japan and some not. Could you tell us where they are, and how you chose them?
 
Camiel Zwart : Well actually none of the locations where in Japan, but its a compliment that you thought so. We had no money to flight to Japan, so we had to build Japan in Holland. Luckily we found a very nice station in Rotterdam that looked like a Japanese one. Of course we had to change al the writing on the walls and put down the yellow line on the ground. For the superhero, manga like scene we lighted the Rotterdam station with led lights in very bright colors. The strange tunnel was also on the same location. The old abandoned station was another story. We searched the hole of Holland and a bit of Germany, but we could not find what we where looking for. In the end we found this station in Belgium and fell in love with it. We wanted to have a station that was the opposite of our main character and the Japanese station where everything was clean and pure.
 
 
How do you think the Japanese audience will think of the film? Do you guess the reactions would be different from that of the Western audience?
 
Camiel Zwart : I am very excited to show the film in Japan, because we are European makers we can only show Japan trough our european eyes. I can only hope that we did your culture justice and that the Japanese people will like the film. I hope that I would be able to see the film in Japan in the future and hear the reactions.
 
In reality, people travel to get to their destinations. There are still passengers on platform 13 in this film, which does not mean to exist. How do you see the idea of travelling and mobility? 
 
The film is built as a nightmare of this conductor. A nightmare in which he as a figure, that is about serving others and having a status as a conductor, is not able to serve them as he would like to. In that scene the girl on the platform is standing, he wants to help her get on the train and to her destination. So in that scene she is traveling somewhere. The other characters are there to show that he has no control over the crowds anymore with his gestures. In that scene the film is also about a class of cultures. If you are dropped in one culture would you be able to adapt in another. In the end all the people that are on the platform want to travel somewhere, but because of it being his nightmare the logistics of this world is different than normal. So they're waiting for a train that will never arrive in a way.

Camiel Zwart
I’ve been working as a film director for more than 14 years, ever since I graduated from the Dutch Film Academy in 2006.  I feel that film only exists with the grace of motion. Without it, it I could just as well be a picture. In dance, movement also is the key element of telling a story. When you put the two art forms together you create a very powerful combination of storytelling. I’ve directed many dance films, all well received on the festival circuit. One of them, Platform 13, was selected for more than 70 festivals worldwide and won about 14 awards. Schooled in the documentary tradition, I always address social issues. My last two films were about segregation in the Dutch school system and young people in debt. I always aim at sparking a debate or initiating social change in the subjects I address. My documentaries have been shown at festivals such as IDFA, TIFF and Prix Europa. Besides directing I also run my own production company Blackframe and I work as a dance film workshop instructor for Cinedans.