Full Description
Ferocious. Funny. In your face. LAST DANCE goes behind the scenes on a stormy collaboration between the iconoclastic dance company, Pilobolus, and the legendary author/illustrator Maurice Sendak. Sendak is something of a one-man show; Pilobolus has four artistic directors who share a vital, if not occasionally tempestuous working partnership. With skillful cinematography and editing, never obtrusive, filmmaker Mirra Bank lets us see how Sendak and the Pilobolus directors ride out their differences, find common ground, and produce a joint work of stunning artistry. The new dancework, A SELECTION, is suggested by Maurice Sendak's family experiences during the Holocaust. The dancers are delightful to listen to and exhilarating to watch. This is a film that will enthrall and fascinate even those who are not interested in modern dance. A unique and thrilling revelation of the creative process!
Filmmaker Bio(s)
Mirra Bank's award winning films have been honored such festivals as Sundance, Toronto, New York Film Festival, San Francisco, London, Edinburgh, Chicago etc. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (Sundance premiere) starred Ellen Barkin, Kevin Bacon and David Strathairn, with a screenplay by John Sayles. Bank's film profile of a Jewish woman of the Lower East Side, Yudie, premiered at the New York Film Festival, and went on to win international awards. Bank has many PBS credits, most recently, her primetime special about women in the Old West, Nobody's Girls, with Cloris Leachman, Tantoo Cardinal, Bai Ling and Esther Rolle. In 2001, she workshopped Good Behavior, based on Richard Brockman's award-winning screenplay, with Matthew Modine, David Strathairn and Karen Allen, at the downtown "Fifth Night" Screenplay Series. For the Actors Studio Fiftieth Anniversary celebration, she directed Ladies at the Alamo, with Shirley Knight, Rue McLanahan and Mary Beth Hurt. She also directed Monkey & the Bone Demon, featuring Pilobolus - a Wolftrap Foundation performance premiere, shot for on-demand webcast, and currently on view at www.wolftrap.org. Last Dance received support from the NEA, NYSCA, the National Fdtn. for Jewish Culture, and the Donnet Fund. It is a verite feature that follows a stormy collaboration between Maurice Sendak & Pilobolus as they create a dance-theater work based on a haunting holocaust legacy.
