Private Project

Forest Creatures: 2

During the pandemic, I locked down quite strictly as I take care of my mother. Unable to perform or produce shows live, I started making short dance and character study films around the public areas of my apartment building, my own apartment, and the gardens of friends. Many of them are “masked.” I originally shared them in my Facebook and Instagram stories, which was where my extended dance community, also in isolation, kept in touch. They are “The Isolation Dances,” and this example is “Forest Creatures: 2” (taken from the Yma Sumac title of the soundtrack I used for it, “Chuncho (Forest Creatures)”).

  • Project Type:
    Experimental
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 15 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 11, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    9x16
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography

Larissa Archer is the daughter of bellydance legend and founder of the seminal San Francisco Classic Dance Troupe, Masha Archer. She received her MA in classical theatre from London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and has performed extensively as an actress in San Francisco and with London's international collective Les Foules. Having studied American Tribal Style bellydance with her mother's former student and troupe member and the founder of Fat Chance Belly Dance, Carolena Nericcio, Archer apprenticed with FCBD before forming San Francisco Bellydance Theater in 2017. She has taught, directed, and performed internationally, as well as at local events ranging from drag shows at El Rio to the Contemporary Jewish Museum's 10th anniversary gala. She is also a widely published art critic, with dozens of pieces to her name in Hyperallergic, Frieze, Art Practical, the San Francisco Examiner, SF Weekly, the Rumpus, Zyzzyva, and more.

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