2023 Official Selections
Short Documentary
Life in the Circus Arts
Bailey Gabrielle Cichon
USA
"Life in the Circus Arts" examines the role the performing arts plays in American culture through the lens of today's circus artists. A commentary on the human condition, effects of capitalism, and play are intertwined in the telling of how circus arts arrived at its current status as a performing art.
Oltre
Roberto Guideri
Italy
It is an unprecedented look into the back stage of the Salieri Circus Award, through the eyes of a particular artist: Silke Pan. She is invited to this festival as a special guest for having had the strength, courage and determination to return to the stage after a ruinous fall from the trapezius that fifteen years earlier made her paraplegic.
Roberto Guideri, with this documentary, does not want to tell the story of Silke Pan but his redemption, the joy of being a protagonist among many artists from all over the world. And her act, titled "Oltre" and created for her by director Antonio Giarola and choreographer Elena Grossule with the participation of Luca Condello and an original music by Mario Stendardi inspired by Antonio Salieri's requem in C minor, obtained the standing ovation in every show. An act that is described above all through its training and the artistic context in which it was presented, made up of many frames on the performances of the artists in competition and who actually framed it.
River
Petra Lange
Germany
'River' is inspired by the true history of my parents’ escape from Communist East Germany in 1957 and their unexpected return to the GDR after a once in a lifetime canoeing trip following the river Mosel in West Germany. By reliving their journey through movement improvisations in the adventure trip’s original locations, I am telling my parents’ story of departure as I research the act of 'Quitting' as a practice of freedom. The red rope as my longterm partner on stage naturally found its way into the story, representing the moment of leaving as a making of space for new or re-rediscovery.
The Yanko Circus
Jesús Cruz Bautista
Mexico