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The Power of Dance

Colleena Shakti defies the falsehood of living a mundane life. She spent her youth in California, but has been living in Rajasthan, India for over fourteen years dancing with the kalbelia gypies in the dessert, living in Orissa’s back ally ways studying Odissi dance, and traveling the world enlightening people with her endless gaze and intrepid drive for art.
She is driven, within the realm of the unknown, to find universal truths through her dance. Her art emanates unanswered questions bringing to the front stage the awakened dream of the Goddess archetype. How does she do this?
She looks Indian, with her long black hair and deep set eyes, but behind this mien is a woman who grew up in America, living and struggling for her own existence as an outsider amongst the native Indians. Does this prove that art never dies, but what dies is our inability to seek truth beyond the mundane?
Colleena isn’t here to sell her art, but to live it, and keep these ancient traditions alive while India becomes modernized and swallowed up by consumerism. Filmed in exotic India and across the globe. Directed by Julianne Reynolds and Produced by Colleena Shakti with additional cinematography by Devansh Jhaveri.

“I warmly encourage you all to take time to watch this beautiful documentary, thirty minutes of goose bumps and tears of happiness!”

“So amazing! Colleena’s dedication is absolutely driven by divine inspiration. I especially love the part about lineage and how it’s not limiting, its limitless once you are inside of the technique and form. Bravo to Colleena and Julianne. This is one I will watch over and over again.”

“A beautiful documentary on Colleena Shakti practice of dance, quest of spirituality an devotion in Art, and so much more of what she offers to this world. …I deeply believe in the power of kindness in this world, and that’s why maybe I was so touched by this. I enjoy to see this video, and I hope that Colleena continues to inspiring the world. Thank you so much!”

“This film portrays values I believe in …we can find such inspiration here.”

“A short movie about one amazing artist and person. It really captures everything essential about Odissi, Kalbeliya and Fusion dance. Just watch this and you will be transformed out of beauty and divine Colleena, this is so inspirational”

“Incredible film of a truly incredible being. I feel so honored to have had the great privilege of crossing paths and connecting with Colleena …she inspired me to the fullest with her art and glowing heart. Thank you for all that you are in our world!!”

“Exceptionally BEAUTIFUL! This is a film rich with the understandings of true art, love, beauty, freedom, discipline, practice and great wisdom!”

“Thank you Julianne for sharing this artistic gem with us! I’ve cried a lot while watching this…On the one hand, it conveys so much beauty, so much harmony and serenity…”

“That was Wonderful!”

  • Julianne L. Reynolds
    Director
    Breasts Documentary
  • Colleena Shakti, & Julianne Reynolds
    Writer
    Breasts Documentary
  • Colleena Shakti
    Producer
  • Julianne L. Reynolds
    Producer
    Breast Documentary
  • Colleena Shakti
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    27 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 21, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    150,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    India, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Unplugged Film Feestival

    India
    August 8, 2016
  • Timeshift Film Screenings
    Los Angeles
    United States
    February 25, 2017
  • Lynwood Film Screening
    Bainbridge Island
    United States
    September 17, 2016
Director Biography - Julianne L. Reynolds

Julianne L. Reynolds, Director, Writer & Photographer

Julianne Reynolds is an internationally known documentary filmmaker, photographer, writer and Founder of Romanski Films. She began her film career in New York City while studying graphic design at the School for Visual Arts. When she relocated to Los Angeles, this grew into a call-to-action format in her film work combined with her humanitarian efforts. Using her real-life experience as a filmmaker traveling through impoverished areas of the East, Julianne has proven her extensive background in journalism and documentary filmmaking as a story-collector. Stories are what drive her to change the world. To her everything is story. She dives into political campaigns, environmental issues, social and equal-rights issues, globalized sex-trafficking issues – and more. The exit is never clear to her, for she gives voice to social causes that need to be heard on a global level. Her magnetism to beauty juxtaposition to important causes is a unique blend that gives her a sophisticated eye for the unseen. Her style is beyond time, and intuitively driven to connect with the world and people to tell real stories directly from the heart.

Julianne has been allocated several awards, but is most noted for “her excellence in the arts”, granted by the Charles Forbes Foundation, as a painter and fine artist; it was after mastering this genre that she moved into filmmaking. As a film producer, Julianne works at the grass-roots level; having produced the first Topanga Film Festival, called – Agnapot Film Festival, which launched her directorial debut of a short film about breast cancer, which later was selected for the New York Independent International Film Festival.

Julianne’s film work has appeared in, “No Subtitles Necessary,” 2010 Emmy Nomination, “Breast’s”, a short documentary she directed, Official Selection for the New York Independent International Film Festival, Farewell to Harry, and Best Film at the Seattle International Film Festival, Bhairavi Sky, Best Film at the Utah Dance Film Festival. Julianne’s film work has appeared in several independent films and most recently featured on CNN.

Julianne’s photographic works have appeared in Yoga Journal, Whole Life Times, Flavorpill, and Common Ground Magazine, Tathaastu Magazine, Yoga International, Yoga Journal Australia, Ojai Foundation Quarterly and South China Morning Post, and featured in the recently published book series, “Goddess and the Guru, based on the work of, nuclear physicist turned master of Sri Vidya, Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswati of Devipuram, India.

Julianne is in post-production for her second documentary film, called “The Mother Matrix”, shot in the villages of southern India. She is also the Executive Producer for the documentary, “Redemption, in light of Duga”, which addresses sex trafficking in Kolkata.

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Director Statement

DIRECTORS STATEMENT FOR POWER OF DANCE
MARCH 2017

Film is an art form that is still under investigation. As an artist, I use film as a medium of inquiry into understanding life and all its mysteries. I am curious what makes people strive for greatness. Where do they find passion, and how do they live beyond a mundane life, during a time when consumerism combined with mass media have watered down the essence of the human spirit. I’d like to dissect this paradoxical problem with stories of greatness; that might inspire people, to see beyond the constraints of a closed mind, and into the infinite possibilities of the spiritual mind. These stories can be a conduit to the unanswerable question that haunts each human being everyday….why am I here?

This need to probe into the depths of the human soul, that arises into a form and meets the formless, is how I began working with Colleena Shakti when I first meet her on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The students that came to study with her revered her as an incarnate of the Great Goddess. She held a sense of outward beauty that wasn’t hard to be drawn too, but that wasn’t what caught my interest, it was her vulnerability to her craft, her art, and her dance. Not a dance form that she went to school for in the US to study, but a dance form that she lived under strenuous conditions in a foreign country to learn, and to be taken into the cauldrons of a culture, that was redefining it’s role on the global stage. India is a place of contrasts, where modernism and ancient wisdoms rub against each other everyday. The essence of God still echo’s throughout the land, but that too is disappearing as modern India enters the 21st Century. However, this is where our story begins, the bridge between the old-myth and the new-modernism wrapped around an art-form – steeped in cultural complexities. When Colleena first traveled to India, from the US in her early 20ties, she was able to find whatever remnants of an ancient dance lineage, which originated in the Hindu temples of the eastern coastal state of Odisha in India. Over time, she embraced this dance form, merging it into her own archetypal language called – Colleena Shakti.

We collaborated on this film because we both wanted to share her story with the world, and inform the world that we must infuse our lives with the sacred. Her story is an open book, for art has no end or beginning, but the true hero’s journey is a pathway towards God, which is one of humility and surrender. Great art enters into form when these two meet, and that’s what we hope people will be inspired by watching this film.