Wilderness Films presents Moving Stories, a new documentary featuring members of Battery Dance directed by Rob Fruchtman and produced by Cornelia Ravenal, Mikael Södersten and Wendy Sax. The film will be screened, with a discussion with the filmmakers and members of Battery Dance Company, on Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 7pm at The Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53^rd Street, NYC, as part of Doc Fortnight 2018: MoMA's International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media. Tickets are $12 and are available at https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/3915.

Six Dancers. Four Countries. One week to transform lives.

In Moving Stories, six dancers from New York's Battery Dance travel the world from India to Eastern Europe to the Korean Peninsula to the Middle East, teaching some of the most vulnerable youth about expressing themselves through movement and creativity. Addressing issues from gender violence and poverty to persecution and prejudice, these students respond in extraordinary ways as they prepare to perform in their communities after only a week of rehearsal. 

Trailer: www.wildernessfilms.us/movingstories.html.

Featuring: Tadej Brdnik, Robin Cantrell, Mira Cook, Clement Mensah, Sean Scantlebury and Lydia Tetzlaff. 

"To me, dance is an art form that triggers emotions and feelings like no other," said director Rob Fruchtman. "And for that reason, it can help unlock the secrets, emotions and yearnings inside us, whether we're trained dancers or ordinary bi-pedal beings. Our film, which documents the groundbreaking work of the Battery Dance Company with young people around the world, shows dance as both a way in and a way out. It provides an opportunity to explore important issues viscerally and emotionally, through the best language on the planet, the movement of the body. No words. Just expression that comes from mind and body talking to each other, connecting the inner life to the outer world. The beauty of this kind of expression is that it is unpredictable. It is an exploration, and that, for me, is deeply rewarding for those who come along with us for the ride."

"The stories told in this sensitive film have become a kind of diary for each of us involved in the Dancing to Connect process," said Jonathan Hollander, artistic director of Battery Dance. "Bringing them so compellingly to life on the screen is revelatory and galvanizing for us as we continue to explore what a dance company can be in the world."

DIRECTOR: Rob Fruchtman

PRODUCERS: Cornelia Ravenal, Mikael Södersten, Wendy Sax

CINEMATOGRAPHER (Romania, South Korea): Lex Fletcher

CINEMATOGRAPHER (India): Shakeb Ahmed

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Amy Lumet