A fresh HD cut of FALLING - dance film by director Dan Farberoff, together with composer Errollyn Wallen, choreographer Henri Oguike, and NASA astronaut Steve MacLean. The film was originally commissioned in 2008 by Channel 4, ABC, Arts Council England and Australia Council for the Arts, and was selected by the prestigious International Festival of Audiovisual Programs (FIPA), as well as for Barcelona's Videodansa International Prize. Astronaut Steve MacLean’s journal entries, following his spacewalk on Atlantis shuttle mission STS-115, served as inspiration for the film, which sets-out to encapsulate a sense of falling without ground, and applies this astronaut’s heightened perception to show how all of us are, in effect, space-walking/falling to Earth in every moment. Director Dan Farberoff and choreographer Henri Oguike worked together to develop the choreography and camera work that would allow them to convey the loss of gravity, of perspective and of orientation; the uncertainty of direction; the loss of ground and the shifting sense of time whilst in space. Dancers Laura Peña Nuñez and Nuno Campos were coached in the use of trampolines, in falling from great height and in aerial work, enduring long days of clinging to wires, and being continuously dropped and crash-landed. The dancers interact very closely in mid air, with great precision, to produce the eloquent, split-second moments of tenderness in the film, captured in extreme slow motion. Credits: Original concept by: ERROLLYN WALLEN and DAN FARBEROFF Director: DAN FARBEROFF Music composed and performed by: ERROLLYN WALLEN Choreographer: HENRI OGUIKE Dancers: LAURA PEÑA NUÑES & NUNO CAMPOS Narration written and read by: STEVE MACLEAN Camera: MARK JOHNSON Electrician: GARY DONOGHUE Rigger: STEFAN KOPEC Costume Designer: ALICE WOLFBAUER Production Co-ordinator: SAMANTHA EARL Archive: NASA Graphics compositing: JELLYFISH PICTURES Recording Engineer: GERRY O’RIORDAN Editor: JOHN MIDDLEWICK Director Dance Board, Australia Council: JENNIFER MCLACHLAN ABC Commissioning Editor: MEGAN HARDING Executive Producer for Arts Council England: DELIA BARKER Executive Producer for Channel 4: JAN YOUNGHUSBAND Producer: NIKKI WESTON Executive Producers for MJW Productions: ANNE BERESFORD & MARGARET WILLIAMS © 2008 MJW Productions
