In episode 10 of Season 2 on The MDC Talks, The MDC team speak with Sima Gonsai; award-winning filmmaker and director born and raised in the North of England and now based in the Midlands. Sima's exploration of film work began in 1998 and she is passionate about telling powerful narratives through the movements of body, film and music.
Sima talks about how her childhood lessons in Bharatnatyam dance and love of watching Bollywood initially drew her to filmmaking. Her debut dance-film KITA, made during her MA in Visual Communication, was an exploration of the vibrancy of Indian classical dance and took 9 months to create. This experience of experimentation with film taught her about perseverance, how to add colour to your work and gifted her an understanding of movement within a frame. Sima describes her journey of making Cycle Dialogues and the joy in exploring communities across the globe with a bicycle and a camera before diving into her work with Freefall Dance Company, an experience that encouraged her to brainstorm what went into making a dance-film with and for complex disabled artists. She describes the significance of creating work that audiences can experience and not just watch and also touches on the challenges and responsibility of making dance-film within this space.
Sima Gonsai:
Instagram - @simagonsaifilms
Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/simagonsai
References:
KITA: https://www.simagonsaifilms.com/kita
Len Lye: https://govettbrewster.com/news/2017/4/spotlight-on-len-lyes-filmmaking-tools-the-stencil
Norman McLaren: https://theconversation.com/norman-mclaren-a-late-great-animator-now-drawing-applause-27506
Cycle Dialogues: https://www.simagonsaifilms.com/cycle-dialogues-film
Freefall: https://www.simagonsaifilms.com/freefall-film
One Fine Day: https://www.simagonsaifilms.com/one-fine-day-film
Screen.dance 2020 Artist Presentation: https://www.screen.dance/festival-2021/artists-presentations-1-4/sima-gonsai-artist-presentation/
Suspended Motion: https://vimeo.com/383081456
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