Women Cinemakers meets
Ellen Oliver "Dear Brother" is a short dance film that explores themes of life, death, and memory in relationships. "Dear Brother" was filmed at Bearnstow, ME, and later combined with audio excerpts of original poetry by Tika Lifton-Herman. Created by Ellen Oliver and inspired by Tika Lifton-Herman's original poem 'Dear Brother'
An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com
Inspired by Tika Lifton-Herman's poetry, Dear Brother is a captivating short dance film by dancer, choreographer, painter and filmmaker Ellen Oliver: inquiring into the themes of life, death, and memory in relationships, she initiates her audience into a heightened experience capable of encouraging a cross-pollination of the spectatorship. Featuring elegant cinematography and sapient composition, Oliver's work speaks of the elusive bond between the abstract nature of the ideas she explores and the physicality of the gestures featured in her works. We are particularly pleased to introduce our readers to her captivating and multifaceted artistic production.
Hello Ellen and welcome to : we would like to introduce you to our readers with a couple of questions regarding your background. You have a solid formal training through your dance studies in high school at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and you nurtured your education with a BA, that you received from the Hampshire College and the Five College Dance Department: how did these experiences inform your current practice? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum direct your artistic research? Thank you WomenCinemakers for inviting me. I began studying ballet when I was a kid, and I choreographed my first informal dance when I was 10 years old. It was a dramatic solo about a young girl who lost a penny, and it was set to Beethoven’s “Rage Over a Lot Penny.” I think