SAMANTHA SHAY: SPECIAL SCREENING

JUROR OF THE MOVING BODIES 2023 COMPETITION, DIRECTOR SAMANTHA SHAY WILL INTRODUCE HERSELF TO LAGO FILM FEST AUDIENCES WITH A SPECIAL SCREENING OF ONE OF HER WORKS.

Mother Melancholia – Samantha Shay
Germany, Iceland / 30’ / 2022

Co-commissioned by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, the dance film approaches patriarchal politics and ecofeminism through an unguarded, unsettlingly beautiful meditation on the difficulty, and immediacy of being fully present in the world. Filmed in the surreal and eroding Icelandic landscape, Mother Melancholia is a quiet, yet urgent conduit between the internal world of the human experience, and the planet we inhabit. 

Samantha Shay is a multidisciplinary artist, performer, director of theatre and film, and movement artist. As a creative instigator, catalyzer and master collaborator, her acclaimed body of work challenges traditional boundaries, creates new connections, and dances across the fault lines between disciplines. She is currently a Fulbright Scholar working with Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. She is also the artistic director of Source Material – a production company formed in 2014, where she carries a deep interest in cross-cultural pedagogy, often collaborating with diverse artistic lineages. Samantha often works with American and international artists, performers and musicians, including as well as former and current members of such companies at Teatr ZAR, Batsheva Dance Company, and Gardzienice. Her theatrical work has been produced at The Grotowski Institute, the Theatre Olympics, RedCat, HERE Arts (New York), Tjarnarbio (Iceland), LungA (Iceland), and the Edinburgh International Fringe.