Mouvement Perpétuel

With the participation of directors Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer (Mouvement Perpétuel)

In collaboration with Bureau du Québec à Barcelone

Mouvement Perpétuel is an award-winning Montreal-based independent film, video, and new media production company specializing in arts programming. Co-directors Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer create impressionistic dance-media films, arts documentaries and multi-channel video installations, feature expansive choreographies and portraits of some of Canada/Quebec’s leading contemporary dancers and choreographers and from across cultures within the Americas, Europe and Asia. Viewers are invited into a deeply intimate tracing of the curvatures of rich human experience.

25 years of history: a retrospective of work from Mouvement Perpétuel’s catalogue. It’s not easy creating a body of work over time, but we are not just still here but alive and thriving creating new work. We’ve been exploring the screendance genre of filmmaking with personal projects, interrogating and inscribing the very nature of dance and human movement in relation to film.

Duration: 0:04:48

Director: Marlene Millar, Philip Szporer

Choreography: Sharon Moore

Country, Year: Canada, 2005

Synopsis
Bhairava evokes facets of Shiva, the Lord of Dance, as both the destroyer of evil and the guardian of time. He is fierce and drives terrible deeds, but he is also the Divine Protector and Supreme Guardian, and his intention springs from pure compassion. In this work, carried by a strong and deeply evocative musical score and by the singular energy of the ancient site of Hampi, dancer and choreographer Shantala Shivalingappa embodies the presence and distinctive qualities of Bhairava.

Duration: 0:04:48

Director: Marlene Millar, Philip Szporer

Choreography: Sharon Moore

Country, Year: Canada, 2005

RRSS: Fb, IG @oskarluko

Synopsis
The intensity of an internal struggle manifests itself externally, as revealed through an intimate, fragmented view of dancer Peter Trosztmer.

Duration: 0:05:30

Director: Marlene Millar, Philip Szporer

Choreography: Ken Roy, Charmaine LeBlanc, France Roy

Country, Year: Canada, 2005

Synopsis
A man at a pivotal point in his life: 40-something, still vital and strong yet taking stock, unmasking, and exposing his hopes, passions, vulnerabilities, and regrets. An homage to the late Ken Roy that follows his journey of self-discovery.

Duration: 0:05:20

Director: Marlene Millar, Philip Szporer

Choreography: Dana Michel

Country, Year: Canada, 2008

Synopsis
A reflection on the moment when one stumbles, whether by accident or on purpose. Sometimes one can recover quickly and get up again… sometimes it’s not that easy. The result is an exploration of the body as an instrument in a symphony of rupture and flow.

Duration: 00:10:00 (excerpt)

Director: Marlene Millar, Philip Szporer

Choreography: Byron Chief-Moon

Country, Year: Canada, 2007

Synopsis
Through his art and his life, Chief-Moon’s story is one of cultural survival. Themes of his dance creations begin with his people’s traditional stories, his attachment to the land and his community, as well as the inner conflict he faces in existing within Indigenous culture and the wider community.

Duration: 00:10:00 (excerpt)

Director: Marlene Millar, Philip Szporer

Choreography: Zab Maboungou

Country, Year: Canada, 2022

Synopsis
For over 30 years, Montréal-based choreographer and philosopher Zab Maboungou, of Franco-Congolese origin, has galvanized the contemporary dance scene with her radically rethought conception of time, body, and self. Her political history, artistry, and pioneering research have empowered other African artists around the world.

Duration: 0:16:00

Director: Philip Szporer

Choreography: Ami Shulman, Angelique Willkie, Amara Barner

Country, Year: Canada, 2025

Synopsis
Mercy weaves poetry and imagery with gesture, movement and voice into an intricate meditation on Black womanhood. The film voices issues of race, place and identity, and dives into the double-voiced discourses of a particular Black literary tradition concerning the complication of the slave learning their captor’s language.