Water – Leonardo da Vinci called it ’the blood of the planet’. A group of people emerges from the water. They try to resist the current of the river and the stream of people in the city, but have to surrender to the flow and are washed ashore. On the shore, the stranded seek for hold and refuge. In the course of the film ‘against or with the flow’, ‘resistance and devotion’ manifest as a primal instinct, as a survival strategy.

Andrea Boll – direction & choreography
Peter Kadar – camera & editing
Chris Fawcett – steadicam operator
Ivan Blagajcevic, Andrea Boll, Chris de Feyter, Hella Immler, Emeric Rabot – dance
Alex Zampini – music
Nico Gutmann / unico film – producer
Cinedans – coproducer
bollwerkfilm
supported by: BAK – Bundesamt für Kultur, Kanton Zürich Fachstelle Kultur, Ernst Göhner Stiftung

DOWNRIVER is awarded 

in 2023 with:
BEST EDITING EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM to Peter Kadar – Garoa Awards, São Paulo, Brazil

in 2022 with:

BEST VIDEODANCE FILM Celaya Experimental Film Fest, Mexico

WINNER Seoul Short Film Festival

BEST EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM – Ficmarc -Caribbean Sea International Film Festival

in 2021 with:

BEST MUSIC and DANCE – Short Film Factory

BEST SHORT – Amarcort Film Festival

BEST OVERALL FILM EDIT – Florence Dance On Screen

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – Wild Dogs International Screendance Festival

BEST DANCE FOR CAMERA – IMMAGI]NA Film Festival 

BEST SHORT DANCE FILM Sacramento World Film Festival

BEST EXPERIMENTAL SHORT – Madrid Arthouse Film Festival

BEST SHORT – Medusa Film Festival 5th season, USA

BEST DANCE SHORT – Accord Cine Fest, India

BEST DANCE FILM – Kansas Arthouse Festival

BEST DANCE SHORT FILM – Cairo Indie Short Festival

BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM – New Creators Film Awards 2021 

BEST SHORT DANCE FILM – Vesuvius International Film Fest 

BEST SHORT DANCE – Florida Shorts

MEJOR VIDEO DANZA – XII Encuentro Para Cinéfagos (Festival de CineArte en la Frontera) 

BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM – Aab International Film Festival

HONORABLE MENTION – Inspired Dance Film Festival Australia

HONORABLE MENTION – VIDEOSKIN III, Movie Garden, Pokhara Nepal

screenings, streamings & nominations 2022:
Festival De Video Danza Palma (i.c. with Moovy Tanzfilmfestival), 29 Oct.
D2D Film Festival, Los Angeles, 15 Oct.
Celaya Experimental Film Fest, Mexico, 1st Sept.
Manifest (the Auro Apaar Dance-Film Festival), Pondicherry India, 30/31 of July
KoresponDance Festival, Czech Republic, 14 July
Seoul International Short Film Festival – 3 July
nominated: T.I.F.A. – Tietê International Film Awards, July
International Film Festival of Ahmednagar India – official selection
BIPOD Festival Beirut – within Ciendans On Tour 26 May + streaming 25-29 May: Citerne.Live
Moovy Tanzfilmfestival 23.04. I 18:00
FECSC- Festival Internacional de Cine de Santa Cruz 15-17 April
8 & HalFilm Awards 13 April – official selection
Beirut International Women Film Festival 6-11 March
Artists for Hope Film Festival 22 Jan – 5 Feb 
Kalakari Film Festival – 6 Feb.
Dance Camera Pandemia / Dance Camera Istanbul – 4 Feb.
Caribbean Sea International Film Festival  – 19 Jan.
Flatlands Dance Film Festival – 22. Jan. – FINALIST
Hollywood On The Tiber Fim Awards – Jan. – selected

screenings, streamings & nominations 2021:
12th Athens Video Dance Project 20-21 Dec.
60 sec. or less Film Festival 17 Dec. (within shorts)
IMARP – Mostra Internacional de dança – Imagens em Movimento – Video dança 13-18 Dec.
Cuerpo Mediado Festival de Videodanza 17-19 Dec.
Calcutta International Short Film Festival 17-18 Dec.
Tokyo International Short Film Festival – Dec. – FINALIST
NanJing International Film Festival 30 Nov. – 1 Dez. 2021
Aporia FF, Korea
Korea’s Mullae Creative Village and Jeju Island
8^th Goa Short Film Festival 202
Imajitari – International Dance Film Festival
Dallas Dance Film Festval – 18 Nov.
Moving Images Festival Egomio Cultural Centre, Nicosia, Cyprus 12-14 Nov.
Urban Visions-Beyond the Ideal City – 11-14 Nov.
Florence Dance On Screen Festival 29 Oct. – 1 Nov.
Greensboro Dance Film Festival 30 Oct.
San Francisco Dance Film Festival 15-24 Oct. 2021
New York International Women Festival – 5 Oct. – FINALIST
Kalakari Film Festival, India, Official Selection, Oct 2021
Mill of performing arts, Larissa Greece 25-26 Sept. 2021
Thessaloniki Cinedance International, Vitruvian Thing, Greece 24-26 Sept. 2021
Light Moves Festival of Screendance, Irland 23 – 26 Sept. 2021
ZED Festival Internazionale Videodanza, Italy 22-29 Sept. 2021
Parma Music Film Festival, Italy within CinedansFEST – program, 20-25 Sept. 2021
For Corners Film Festival, USA 15-17 Sept. 2021
Screen Dance International Festival, Detroit Michigan USA 12 Sept. 2021
Sans Souci, Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA 3-5 Sept. 2021
Film Fest by Rogue Dancers, Amongst the people edition 20 Aug. – 5 Sept. 2021
Wild Dogs International Screendance Festival, Canada 18 Sept. 2021
7th Bogotá Experimental Film Festival 18 Aug. in person / online in Sept. 2021
Dencentric Film Festival DFF, USA 21-22 Aug. 2021
New York Battery Festival 12-14 Aug 2021 / online – 20 Aug.
FASS Forward Film Festival 1 Aug. 2021
DanceBRAN ScreenDANCE Festival, Battle Lake USA 27 July
Spring Grove Caledonia Film Festival, Minnesota USA 24-25 July
Dances with Camera Competition, Short Waves Festival, Poland 14-20 June
Dance Film Festival Prague 3 – 5 June 2021
Contact Dance International Film Festival, Toronto, Canada 5-6 June 2021
London Indie Short Festival semi finalist May 2021
DanzaTTack, Islas Canarias Spain 7-16 May 2021
REELING: dance on screen Edmonton Alberta, Canada 16-30 May 2021
Dance On Screen, Switzerland 10-16 May 2021
ScreenDance Festival, Stockholm, Sweden 22 –  29 April 2021
ZIEL Spring Dance Festival, Brooklyn, nyc United States 26-28 March 2021
(NOMINATION Best Production)
Opine Dance Film Festival, Philadelphia United States 25 – 28 March 2021
Cinedans FEST 2021 in shorts 5, Amsterdam, NL  25-28. March 2021
Cine RO – Festival de Cinema de Rondonia, Brazil  10-25 March 2021
(NOMINATIONS: Best Picture, Best Montage, Best Soundtrack, Best Sound)
world premiere: Cinedans FEST 2020 (postponed to 2021 due to covid-19)

Dates
Click here

Info & bookings
info@bollwerk-andreaboll.com
u-nico.ch

Opera+ Lucie Kocuurkova, 16.07.2022 / screening in KoresponDance Festival, CZ:
English translation:
The Swiss film Downriver, whose performing team is personally part of the festival every day and dances in the open air, was dominated by movement in the elements. It transforms physical dance movement into a harmony with the fluid energy of water flow, a connection with the earth and its hidden and unmanifested power pulsing beneath the green surface, and the interaction of dancers with the stone walls and streets of the city, where rhythmic to frenetic movements culminate, performers bump into each other in the nervous atmosphere of a confined space, the sun blazes, and passersby undergo a focus on their own dramas. The meadow is grounding and the water is an energizing element that understandably tempts the camera’s eye to a variation on the Pre-Raphaelite Ophelia a thousand times over. The film has very good camerawork that doesn’t cause vertigo with unnecessary swooshing, but follows key moments of movement, individual expression and interaction between the dancers.

Czech original artical text:
Švýcarskému filmu Downriver, jehož interpretační tým je každý den osobně součástí festivalu a tančí pod širým nebem, vévodil pohyb v živlech. Přeměňuje fyzicky taneční pohyb do souznění s plynulou energií vodního toku, spojení se zemí a její skrytou a nemanifestovanou silou tepající pod zeleným povrchem a interakci tanečníků s kamennými zdmi a ulicemi města, kde kulminují rytmické až frenetické pohyby, performeři na sebe narážejí v nervózní atmosféře stísněného prostoru, slunce žhne a kolemjdoucí procházejí soustředění na svá vlastní dramata. Louka je uzemňující a voda je energizující živel, který pochopitelně svádí oko kamery k variaci na prerafaelickou Ofélii tisíckrát jinak. Film má velmi dobrou kameru, která nezpůsobuje závrať zbytečným švenkováním, ale sleduje klíčové okamžiky pohybu, individuálního výrazu a interakce tanečníků.

Jury Amarcort Film Festival 2012 about DOWNRIVER:
Original text in Italian:
“L’elemento cinematografico viene coniugato in modo spettacolare, e con alta professionalità tecnica, al linguaggio corporeo in relazione con l’ambiente circostante evocando diverse emozioni basate anche sull’aspetto qualitativo della colonna sonora e del movimento corporeo dei protagonisti”.

English translation:
The film element is conjugated spectacularly, and with high professional technique, to body language in relation with surrounding environment, evoking different emotions, based also on the qualitative aspect of the music score and the body movement of the protagonists.

Jury XII Encuentro Para Cinéfagos (Festival de CineArte en la Frontera) 2021 about DOWNRIVER:

Original text in Spanish:

“Del fondo emergen, vitales, por un instante calculan y se lanzan a enfrentar el trecho rio arriba que les toca recorrer, deslizándose y cortando obstáculos entre ecosistemas terrestres o acuáticos, o un fango espeso intermedio, aferrados a alguna roca expuesta sobre la superficie del flujo, o flotando rio abajo, o estancados, con sus cabellos bailando al son del agua que choca y se devuelve en las riberas. Encuadres y edición forman parte orgánica de este ensamble, que consigue que el espectador embarque en este viaje de renacimiento y flujo cíclico”