Ancestor

Swedish choreographer Ami Skånberg found a new story about Sweden when she followed the advice of her Nihon Buyō master Nishikawa Senrei: "If you want to keep dancing, you have to dance with your ancestors." Skånberg searched and finally found her ancestors' past. It was a story of magic, dissent and resistance. To expand on what an ancestor can represent, she asked her first screen dance teacher, Douglas Rosenberg, to dance the role of her ancestor Andreas Jakobsson. In Ancestor, Rosenberg represents both a professional and a real ancestor.

When screened at Ecoperformance Festival at Brown Arts Institute, composer Jack Tamul wrote:
It’s a beautiful film. It goes past your mind and pierces your heart immediately so you leave the room a different person than when you came in.

CAST
Douglas Rosenberg
as
Andreas Jakobsson (1826-1907)

Nishikawa Senrei (1945-2012 )
Linnea Johansson (1924-2017)
Ami Skånberg

Directed by
Ami Skånberg

Photo by
John Areblad

Editor
Rasmus Ohlander

Assistant
Karin Brygger

Music
Kajsa Magnarsson

Additional photo
Folke Johansson
Palle Dahlstedt

Produced and distributed by
Studio BuJi, Gothenburg
with support by

Adlerbertska Stipendiefonden
Swedish Arts Grants Committee
Jonsereds Herrgård
Villa Martinson

Filmed on location
in Kyoto (2011), Hyltebruk (2017) and Jonsered (2021).

  • Ami Skånberg
    Director
  • Ami Skånberg
    Writer
  • Ami Skånberg
    Producer
  • Douglas Rosenberg
    Key Cast
    "Andreas Jakobsson"
    Song of Songs
  • Senrei Nishikawa
    Key Cast
    The Dance of the Sun
  • Linnea Johansson
    Key Cast
  • Ami Skånberg
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 40 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 25, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    2,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Sweden
  • Country of Filming:
    Sweden
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Dansfilmfestivalen
    Gothenburg
    Sweden
    February 12, 2022
    World premiere
    Official selection
  • Berlin Art Film Festival
    Berlin
    Germany
    March 31, 2022
    Official selection
  • FICCE
    Buenos Aires
    Argentina
    Official selection
  • Venice Shorts
    Venice
    United States
    Official selection
  • Manifest Dance-Film Festival
    Pondicherry
    India
    Official selection
  • Tokyo Shorts
    Tokyo
    Japan
    Semi finalist
  • Stockholm Short Festival
    Stockholm
    Sweden
    semi-finalist
  • International Ecoperformance Festival
Distribution Information
  • Studio BuJi
    Distributor
    Country: Sweden
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Ami Skånberg

Ami Skånberg is a Swedish performer, choreographer, filmmaker and writer, trained at The Ballet Academy, the Valand School of Fine Arts, and the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg, Sweden. She has a PhD in dance from Dance Department, University of Roehampton.
She works as a senior lecturer in dance at Stockholm University of the Arts where she is the head of a MA programme in Contemporary Dance Education, she also works at the Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg. Ami often creates stage work (solo, and collaborative) based on her embodied life story in a particular theme. Her 90 min solo performance A particular act of survival received a performing arts award at Scenkonstgalan in Sweden in 2015. Recent work are Atsumori/Hero (for the Noh theatre Festival in London) and The laugh of the Medusa. Her piece Yamamba - waltz for a wounded ancestor premiered in Dec 2018. Ami makes dance films and documentaries about dance. Her debut film won an honorary mention at VidéoDanseGrandPrix in Paris 1995. Her fiction film The Dancer - a fairy-tale was nominated the Golden Hat Award at Gothenburg Film Festival the same year. A collection of her films is released by Njutafilms. http://www.njutafilms.com

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

In my work I wish to expand the notion of what dance on film and screendance is.
Read my statement on screendance here:
https://screendancejournal.org/article/view/4523