zero degrees - Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi

zero degrees is a remarkable collaboration between four of today's most respected artists.

Moroccan-Flemish SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI is well known for his work with Les Ballets C. de la B. while AKRAM KHAN is world renowned for developing his own 'contemporary Kathak' style, winning numerous awards. For zero degrees they bring their unique styles together in this spellbinding piece of dance.

Mercury Award winning composer/producer NITIN SAWHNEY adds his own East-meets-West sound with a specially commissioned score played live by four musicians, and Turner Prize winner ANTONY GORMLEY has contributed the staging - two life-size casts of the dancers.

zero degrees explores borders - between countries, cultures and, most importantly, between life and death. It challenges, prompts and inspires, in a seamless fusion of dance styles, music and contemporary art.

Recorded live at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London

Lucas Samaras - 'Transformations'

Lucas Samaras (born September 14, 1936), is an artist, born in Kastoria, Greece. He studied at Rutgers University on a scholarship, where he met Allan Kaprow and George Segal. While at Rutgers, he joined Gamma Sigma (Rutgers). He participated in Kaprow's "Happenings," and posed for Segal's plastic sculptures.[1] Claes Oldenberg, whose Happenings he also participated in, later referred to Samaras as one of the "New Jersey school," which also included Kaprow, Segal, George Brecht, Robert Whitman, Robert Watts, Geoffrey Hendricks and Roy Lichtenstein. Samaras previously worked in painting, sculpture, and performance art, before beginning work in photography. He subsequently constructed room environments that contained elements from his own personal history.[2] His "Auto-Interviews" were a series of text works that were "self-investigatory" interviews.[3] The primary subject of his photographic work is his own self-image, generally distorted and mutilated. He has worked with multi-media collages, and by manipulating the wet dyes in Polaroid photographic film to create what he calls "Photo-Transformations"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Samaras

PABLO PICASSO "In the key of Picasso" - Music by Carlos Vamos

Niraj Chag - Bella The Musical (Teaser)

Teaser for Niraj Chag's musical, Bella.

Produced & Written by Marcus Flemmings. Cinematography by Rajesh Hirani. Directed by Ajay Chag. Starring: Yuvna Kim, Haider Zafar, Evan Regueira, Raheela Mahomed, John Lynch, Preema Chande, Amun Bhachu, Aradhna Bahanda.

http://www.vimeo.com/constantfilms

The Color of Pomegranates / Sayat Nova

Steeped in religious iconography, The Color of Pomegranates is a deeply spiritual testament to director Sergei Parajanov’s fascination with Armenian folk art and culture. It is also a controversial work, which, coupled with another of his films, Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors, led to his arrest and imprisonment in a Soviet Gulag for four years. The Soviets insisted he was guilty of selling gold and icons illegally and committing “homosexual acts.” In reality, his only crime was offending the tenets of socialist realism, both in his daring surrealistic form and in his choice of subject matter. While many of the popular films of this era in Soviet cinema were largely propaganda designed to serve the ideological interests of the regime, Parajanov chose to focus on the ethnography and spirituality of the Ukraine, Armenia, and Georgia.

When Vincent Laforet released Reverie last year, the digital revolution seemed poised to sweep across the world of moviemaking. Shot entirely on a prototype of Canon’s then yet-to-be-released EOS 5D Mark II, the short film revealed the camera’s extraordinary low-light sensitivity and HD video capabilities, all with the photographer’s choice of lenses. It appeared to be an all-in-one movie studio replacement.

The fact that HD video and cinematic quality was being offered at consumer rates thrilled the online video community. “Laforet’s, in particular, showed off the real upside of working with the 5DII’s light-sensitive sensor: When you can work with smaller lights, your production budget goes much farther,” said photographer and End User writer Ryan Brenizer in an e-mail.

It seemed that a few big Hollywood studios would no longer dominate our viewing agenda, that an indie revolution was imminent and that the dam on a reservoir of creativity had been destroyed. But that has not been the case. So why are we not awash in studio-quality, low-budget flicks? The answer is complex, and it zeros in on an ever more important relationship between the tools of production and the actual talent of filmmaking — the two of which people often confuse.

Canon’s announcement last month of their latest model, the EOS 1D Mark IV, was coupled with another release by Laforet, using a Mark IV prototype. Again shooting under tight time restrictions and using no additional lighting, the short, Nocturne, immediately became the subject of intense internet chatter.

Video enthusiasts were thrilled by news of the expanded ISO range and ability to shoot at 24, 25 and 30fps at full 1080p, but before many had the opportunity to see the movie, Canon requested it be pulled. No official explanation has been offered by either the company or Laforet himself, although it has been noted his use of Zeiss lenses during production may be the cause. The incident is just the latest in a series of missteps and blunders which has caused consternation amongst potential subscribers to the DSLR as movie camera.

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Artist spotlight: Anneta Spanoudaki - Corpus #3

Act 3 of a five-part investigation of ephemeral habitat solutions.