Experiencing Interruptions?

Practicing Defence

Sara Bonaventura (IT) and Anna vs June (GR) present Practicing Defence. The piece focuses on the Xing Yi and BaGua styles of Wushu Kung Fu as practiced in the Athletic Club Inner Fist, in Athens. The shifu (teacher) and two students, all of them also professional dancers, repeat a series of movements alone, together, competing and complementing each other. Practicing defence.

Based on the recordings of their performance and drawing inspiration from works such as Maya Deren’s Meditation on violence, Sara Bonaventura and Anna Vs June aimed to create a narrative loop centered on female empowerment and solidarity.

  • Sara Bonaventura
    Director
  • 25AV
    Producer
  • Anna Papaioannou
    Soundtrack
  • Joanna Toumpakari
    Choreographer
  • Joanna Toumpakari
    Performer
  • Marietta Manaroli
    Performer
  • Elina Demirtzioglou
    Performer
  • Project Type:
    Experimental
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    June 11, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Greece
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Triennale, Agorà c/o 25AV
    Milan
    Italy
    December 15, 2023
  • PANORAMICA*23
    Milan
    Italy
  • SuperOtium
    Naples
    Italy
Director Biography - Sara Bonaventura

Sara Bonaventura (1982) is an Italian visual artist and educator.
She works at the intersection between visual and media arts, lens based media and new media. As independent videographer she has been collaborating with performers and musicians, directing clips, ads, curating visuals.
Her video works have been screened worldwide; at the NYC Anthology Film Archives, the San Francisco Independent Short Film Festival, at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Asolo Art Film Festival, at Studio 303 for the Montreal Nuit Blanche, the Miami New Media Festival, the Athens Digital Arts Festival, at Rome MACRO Museum, the Cinemateca do MAM in Rio for Dobra Festival, the MOMus in Thessaloniki for Videolands curated by Miden Festival, the itinerant Time is Love screening curated by Kisito Assangni, the Mexico City CODEC festival, Other Cinema at San Francisco ATA Gallery, the LA Echo Park Film Center, the Boston Cyber Arts Gallery and more.
She won the Veneto Region Award at the 10th Lago Film Fest and a merit for the 2019 Sino per NIIO Illumination Art Prizes, with one of her work displayed in one of the world biggest public screen in Hong Kong; she has been selected for several residencies, i.e. in 2016 by Joan Jonas at Fundacion Botin (Santander, Spain). Recently selected for the ISEA 2019, the International Symposium for Electronic Arts, in Gwangju, South Korea. She recently released her debut documentary, Forest Hymn for Little Girls.

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