6 tuesday, april 12, 2011
Inspiration abounds Chinese dance company
for UNC filmmaker to perform at Memorial
Professor involves
students in process
by Jacqueline Kantor
staff writer
He’s found them as far away as
Norway and as local as the UNC
soccer fields. He’s even discovered
them down the road in Durham and
then taken them to West Africa.
When Gorham “Hap” Kindem
goes looking for the next subject
of one of his award-winning docu-
mentaries, he doesn’t always know
where it’ll be.
The subject of his newest project,
for instance, came from a Norwegian
paraplegic skiing competition.
Kindem, a professor of commu-
nications studies, has made about a
dozen documentaries since 1987.
His latest work, “More Than
Meets the Eye,” focuses on Anne-
Mette Bredahl — a blind skier —
and her journey to the Vancouver
Paralympics in 2010.
The film will be screened on
campus on May 4, featuring a
question-and-answer session with
Kindem and a speaker from the
Foundation Fighting Blindness.
It has also been selected for
screening at the Boston International
Film Festival on April 18.
“It isn’t my first film, but what
makes it meaningful to me is I
think it might be used to help raise
money for blindness research,”
Kindem said.
Bredahl said she hopes viewers
can learn from her experiences.
“I found it could be used to show
people how disabled people can
have a rich life, with ups and downs,
but also show how physical activ-
ity can be important in managing
everyday life challenges,” she wrote
in an email. “It is not just about fit-
ness and winning medals.”
Kindem’s first documentary,
1987’s “Chuck Davis, Dancing
Through West Africa,” followed
Davis through Senegal and Gambia
exploring the roots of African dance.
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UNC professor Hap Kindem’s new film, “More Than Meets the Eye,”
will be screened at the Boston International Film Festival on April 18.
The film was shown on PBS and the
Discovery Channel and won a presti-
gious CINE Golden Eagle award.
“He gave all this energy and sup-
port without ever raising his voice,
and he was always right there,”
Davis said. “After the first couple of
hours I said, as a director myself,
‘This man knows what he’s doing;
whatever he says I’ll do.’”
Kindem’s documentaries focus
on characters with a local or global
impact.
“Sometimes the encounter or
finding a subject that you find really
compelling might be by chance, but
what follows after is not,” he said.
“If it has strong characters and
strong stories and if it can serve its
social purpose, it makes me very
happy,” he added.
Kindem’s 2009 documentary
on the UNC women’s soccer team,
“Winning Isn’t Everything,” played
on the Fox Soccer Channel and
received the Accolade Film Award.
Head coach Anson Dorrance
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Courtesy of Hap Kindem
said he agreed to work with
Kindem after admiring a music
video he filmed for Carolina for
Kibera using footage of the team.
“When he approached us about
doing the documentary I was in
with both feet,” Dorrance said, add-
ing that the film has become a use-
ful recruiting tool for the program.
Bob Dylan even donated four
songs to Kindem’s “Beyond The
Wall,” about UNC’s infamous 1960s
speaker ban.
But in addition to celebrities,
Kindem also involves his students.
Amanda Younger, a senior jour-
nalism major, worked with Kindem
on “More Than Meets the Eye,” add-
ing effects to simulate blindness.
“I hope I’ll get to have the chance
to work on more documentaries
and come up with new ideas to use
graphics and integrating them into
film,” she said.
Kindem said attitudes like that
are why he involves his students.
“I see my documentary filmmak-
ing as directly connected to my
teaching,” he said. “In terms of the
experiences I retain and the lessons
I learn, I bring that back into the
classrooms.”
Contact the University Editor
university@dailytarheel.com.
The Daily Tar Heel
Will present two
shows, visit class
by Grace Tatter
staff writer
It wasn’t until 2005 that China
had an independent professional
dance company.
Tonight, that company will per-
form at Memorial Hall.
BeijingDance/LDTX — Lei
Dong Tian Xia, or Thunder
Rumbles Under Heaven — is stop-
ping at UNC as part of an interna-
tional tour.
On Tuesday, the company
will perform “Unspeakable,” and
Wednesday night, they will per-
form a number of pieces, including
“All River Red (Rite of Spring),” a
dance to Igor Stravinsky’s 1913
composition.
Willy Tsao — now the artistic
director for BeijingDance — pre-
viously directed each of China’s
official modern dance compa-
nies.
“Everything was paid for,” he
said. “But of course the price is
they do only works they are asked
(by the government) to do.” Courtesy of Anne Cecile Guthmann
Tsao directed the first modern Dancers of BeijingDance/LDTX perform “The Cold Dagger.” The dance
dance company in China, which company will be performing at Memorial Hall tonight and tomorrow.
was started after the Cultural
Revolution in 1979 when the
Chinese government began to be “You’re scared to be seen. But that doesn’t
more permissive of Western influ-
ence.
mean they didn’t like it."
The government had previously Willy tsao, artistic director, beijingdance/ldtx
considered modern dance to be a
capitalist device of corruption, Tsao said modern dance was an
Tsao said. important social development in SEE THE SHOW
He said that sentiment was evi- China. Time: 7:30 p.m. today and Wednesday
dent at one of the company’s first “The audience can freely inter- Location: Memorial Hall
dances. pret it, associate it with their own Tickets: $10 for students and $20
“It was probably like going to experience, own understanding,” to $55 for the general public.
see a porno. You’re scared to be he said.
seen,” he said. “But that doesn’t “This is what we’re trying to pro- class Monday and is visiting pro-
mean they didn’t like it.” mote in China as a modern dancer. fessor Robin Visser’s Post-Mao
Mark Nelson, director of mar- It is not an American form of art, Chinese Urban Culture and Arts
keting for Carolina Performing but it is a new way of thinking, a class Tuesday before their per-
Arts, said it will be interesting to new way of understanding the formance. Others are welcome to
compare BeijingDance’s perfor- world.” attend.
mances to those of other dance The Chinese government gives Visser said she looks for-
companies that have come to UNC the company only two criteria — ward to seeing the performance
this year. no complete nudity on stage and Wednesday.
“You’re going to have a group no direct criticism against the gov- “I sense more creative energy is
of highly skilled dancers perform- ernment, Tsao said. coming out of Beijing these days
ing works similar to what we’ve “But besides that, they’ve made than any other city in the world,”
seen previously, but they’ve lived
through this cultural oppression
a lot of room for us to say what’s
on our mind,” Tsao said. “All of my
she said.
that’s difficult for us to imagine,”
he said.
dancers feel free.”
The company held a master
Contact the Arts Editor
at arts@dailytarheel.com.