Film
Memory2Go
USA / Martinique / France / Austria / Germany
Directed, filmed and edited by Layla Zami
In this movie about dance, memory and diaspora, we encounter contemporary international dancers-choreographers of various backgrounds and aesthetic styles. Through personal conversations and performance excerpts, we get closer to understanding the power of dance to perform, process, and produce cultural memory in the 21st century. This film is currently in post-production, in connection with the recent book publication Contemporary PerforMemory.
Dancing Through Gardens (Durch Gärten Tanzen)
Germany / Indonesia / France 2014. Duration: 140 min.
By Oxana Chi & Layla Zami
How does a dance biography from the past become a source of inspiration for a dance artist of the present? The movie takes
the audience on an poetic and insightful voyage to Paris, Berlin and Solo (Surakarta) . Layla Zami accompanies the award-winning
dancer-choreographer Oxana Chi on the footsteps of historical dance legend Tatjana Barbakoff. A Chinese-Jewish-Latvian
artist, Tatjana was very famous in 1920s/30s Europe, and inspired many visual artists of the 20th century. Today, Oxana
brings her back to life on stage, giving her an afterlife through her performance Through Gardens.
Including unseen archival footage, fiction scenes, innovative Fusion dance (from ballet to wayang kulit over Chinese
martial arts), and a sprinkle of animation, Dancing Through Gardens tells a moving and inspiring tale of women's struggle
and survival through the power of dance.
Produced by lichiverein, made possible in parts with the support of the French Ministry Program "Envie d'Agir", the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah (FMS Paris), Berlin Arts University (UdK), Amadeu-Antonio-Stifunt and private sponsors.
Press
Interview with Layla Zami, Visiting Research Scholar at Columbia University
Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4) Interview Series, April 8th, 2016.
Interviewer: Meredith Smith, New York City.
Hommage an Tatjana Barbakoff
"Durch Gärten Tanzen" erinnert an die lettisch-jüdische Tanzkünstlerin
in Jüdische Allgemeine, October 12th, 2014.
L’amitié, l’amour et… la danse
in Berlinpoche, Berlin's Francophone Cultural Magazine, October 06th, 2014.
Interview in French with Layla Zami and Oxana Chi. Interviewer: Laura Strack.
The film was honored with the International Award of Recognition at DOSHIMA 2016.
watch award-ceremony trailer
DVD Release
German original version with English and French subtitles. li:chi movie 2015. Duration: 140Min.
Orders within Europe through the online-distributor Fembooks
For orders in the USA, please reach out to me directly: mail(at)laylazami.net
This is a special first limited edition.
The DVD is part of the permanent collections of following national institutions, universities and museums: Jewish Museum Berlin, Tanzarchiv Köln, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, Israel Museum Jerusalem, Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah (Paris), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Dance Department at Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, Universität der Künste Berlin, Humboldt-University Center for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies, Helen-Dahm-Museum Switzerland, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, as well as public libraries such as the Manfred-Bofinger-Bibliothek Treptow and the Central Berlin Library Amerika-Gedenk-Bibliothek.
In the summer of 2017, the movie was listed, amongst material on dance legends such as Trisha Brown, Merce Cunningham and Pina Bausch, as part of the special exhibition Themenraum Tanz organized by the Berlin Central Library in partnership with the festival "Tanz im August".
Cooperation
Dance Biennale "Passages14" International Festival of Afro-Contemporary Dance in Bielefeld
Commissioned by Festival Director to document the whole Festival Week on video. Festival trailer co-edited with Oxana Chi
DansArt Biennale PASSAGES14 - African Contemporary Dance Festival
PERFORMANCES | CONCERTS | EXHIBITIONS | WORKSHOPS | CONFERENCES
12.-16-11.2014
DansArt THEATRE Bielefeld
Gender & Sustainable Energies
interviews with experts from Southern & Western Africa, 2013. africavenir international e.V.
Interview with Judy W. Wakhungu
Interview with Prof. Many C. Camara
spuren legen_verwehen. a feminist video_poem.
Commissioned by Professor Dr. Lann Hornscheidt
Premiere 2012 at the "transforming politics | politisizing trans" lab exhibition @ galerie funke, berlin
a feminist video_poem
by layla zami & lann hornscheidt
this film inspired by the book "feminismus schreiben_lernen" explores quest_ions of language, position_ing and beLong_ing to comm_Unities
beyond heteronormative mainstream. a unique collaboration between gender studies professor lann hornscheidt and filmmaker layla zami, it
stresses intertwined aspects of gender and race. this challenging mix of poetic documentary and experimental essay portraits people who
leave temporary traces of their identities and politics in their surroundings. in the audiovisual medium, the u-topian quests for spaces and
words are re-created, suggesting alternative linguistic practices and demanding new ways of seeing_listening.
quotes by: sarah kirsch, audre lorde, adrienne rich, luz maria umpierre, elana dykewomon, lann hornscheidt, chrystos, marg yeo,
helene cixous
film credits
directed by layla zami & lann
idea + production: lann
cinematography + editing: layla zami
sound: steva
sound design: layla zami + heidrun schramm
off-voice: agnes lampkin
all rights reserved. berlin 2012
copyright: layla zami & lann hornscheidt
http://laylazami.net
http://lannhornscheidt.com
spuren legen_verwehen. a feminist video_poem
this short experimental video was created for the exhibition "to dyke_trans | dis_visualizing re_locating de_silencing " presented at
galerie funke, berlin, germany in may 2012. among the participating artists were layla zami, zanele muholi, claude cahun (rip), coco riot
& elisha lim.
for more information about the exhibition and the project "lab: politicizing trans | trans_forming politics",
please visit: http://transformingpolitics.blogsport.de/
xart_splitta lab
Video documentation of the Open lectures by special guest professors from the USA @ Humboldt University Berlin May 2012
sponsored by swedish university linköping, international gender studies graduate school 'intergender'
Kurz in der Welt: Die Welt in den Augen der Kinder
Commissioned by ManuEla Ritz for the State Antidiscrimination Board in Germany. Premiere 2012 @ Festival 'Aktionswoche im Besten Alter. Immer.' movie theatre 'fsk Kino' Berlin.
How do children deal with growing up in a world which is conceived by adults for adults? How would it be if adults see the world through children's eyes and learn to listen?
die welt in den augen der kinder
ein Dokumentarspielfilm von Kindern für Menschen jeden Alters
Um den gesamten Film (45 min.) zu bestellen, Schreiben Sie an: manumwangi@yahoo.com
Was bedeutet es, als Kind in einer Welt zu leben, in der (meist) Erwachsene das Sagen haben? Wie wäre es wenn es anders herum wäre? Was
können Erwachsene lernen, wenn sie Kinder zur Sprache kommen lassen und ihnen zuhören? Die Kinder, die diesen Film konzipiert haben,
nehmen uns mit auf eine lustige, nachdenkliche phantasievolle und inspirierende Reise in ihre Alltagswelten. Reisen Sie mit! Das Ziel steht
fest: Gleichwürdiger Umgang zwischen allen Menschen; ganz gleich welchen Alters.
ein Film von und mit
Nil Akarsular, Änne & Lilo Beller, Sophie Isabelle Schickl, Simbi Christin & Lucas Schwarz
Ein Projekt von
ManuEla Ritz * Autorin | Antidiskriminierungstrainerin
Idee | Produktion | Co-Regie
Filmisch umgesetzt von
Layla Zami * Filmemacherin | Politologin
Co-Regie | Kamera | Montage
Ton: Eva Kietzmann
Sound Design: Heidrun Schramm
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes
Premiere 28.04.12 im fsk Kino Berlin
Other Film Projects
Firebird
short documentary about nationalism in germany. berlin 2011. Premiere Berlin 2010 @ Salon Qi Festival Theaterforum 2010 & Sputnik Kino Movie Theatre
l'oiseau de feu * жар-птица * firebird * feuervogel *
a short videopoem on travel and exile
film by layla zami
starring ana kavalis (berlin | cuba)
idea
ana kavalis & layla zami
cinematography & editing
layla zami
berlin, 2010
premiere in berlin
+ salon qi festival @ theaterforum kreuzberg, berlin, may 2010
+ sputnik kino, berlin, jan. 2010
SCHWARZ, ROT, GOLD, Alles nur Vergangenheit?
short documentary about nationalism in germany. berlin 2011. galerie gondwana salon qi festival 2011
Bis an den Aussersten Rand
In Memory of Ghanean-German Poet, Activist & Author May Ayim (Berlin 1960 - Hamburg 1996)
Hibiscus. Madinina
Short Super 8 Film. shot in Madinina 2011