Postcards from... is an international dance/film project in which teams of artists work with community groups to create short “moving postcards” of the area in which they live. The project was conceived and is artistically directed by Jo Parkes.

 

Each project produces several short dance films, each under one-minute long, which present the location through the eyes of the participants.

 

In each location, Jo works with an arts development agency to recruit local artists to create the films with several different groups in the area. Each community group works with a different team of artists. Each team is made up of choreographer, filmmaker, composer and assistant dance artist.

 

In 2009, four teams of artists worked with pupils from four Berlin schools to create short dance-films – “dancing postcards“ of their city. Each team worked for 90-minutes once a week for 10 weeks, with a half day to shoot each film in addition.

 

The result is 14 films, each under 60 seconds long; “postcards” of this dynamic, ever-changing city seen through the eyes of its young people. The films were premiered in May 2009 at Arsenal Cinema on Potsdamer Platz and in the Berliner Fenster, the screens on the Berlin underground trains, where they were seen by over one-million people each day for two weeks. In 2009, the project was a prizewinner in the competition “Kinder zum Olymp”. 

 

Films created by: Rachel Brooker, Jenny Haack, Sven O. Hill, Koone, Jo Parkes, Gerhard Schick, Yoann Trellu, Abby Warrilow

 

Postcards from East London