DAVID HINTON - NORA CHIPAUMIRE

Nora

NORA is based on true stories of the dancer Nora Chipaumire, who was born in Zimbabwe in 1965. In the film, Nora returns to the landscape of her childhood and takes a journey through some vivid memories of her youth. Using performance and dance, she brings her history to life in a swiftly-moving poem of sound and image. The result is a film about family dramas, difficult love affairs and militant politics, which moves back and forth between the comic and the tragic, the joyful and the mournful. It is a film about a girl who is constantly embattled - struggling against all kinds of intimidation and violence - but who slowly gathers strength, pride and independence. Shot entirely on location in Southern Africa, "Nora" includes a multitude of local performers and dancers of all ages, from young schoolchildren to ancient grandmothers, and much of the music is specially composed by a legend of Zimbabwean music - Thomas Mapfumo.

DAVID HINTON (director)

David Hinton is a director who has made many documentaries for British television. His subjects have included artists of all kinds, including painter Francis Bacon, film-maker Bernardo Bertolucci, writer Alan Bennett, and choreographer Karole Armitage. He has also made films about Dostoyevsky, rock and roll, visual comedy, and the Cultural Revolution in China. He is best known in the dance world for DEAD DREAMS OF MONOCHROME MEN and STRANGE FISH, his film versions of stage shows by DV8 Physical Theatre. He has also made performance films with Adventures in Motion Pictures, the Alvin Ailey Company and the Royal Swedish Ballet, and he has collaborated with several choreographers to create original dance works for the screen. He has twice won British Academy awards for his documentaries, and his dance films have won many awards, including a Prix Italia, an Emmy, and the IMZ Dance Screen Award.

NORA CHIPAUMIRE (choreographer)

Nora Chipaumire was born in Mutare, Zimbabwe during the Chimurenga Chechipiri, or second war of liberation, and has lived in the U.S. as a self-exiled artist since 1989. Now based in Brooklyn, Chipaumire considers herself a political artist in dialogue with herself, fellow Africans, and humanity: Zimbabwe is her focus and Africa is her center. MANCC Fellow, recipient of NDP Tour Support, and participant in the JANT-BI Diaspora Project in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, Nora akovganwas recently honored with the Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award. Winner of the 2007 BESSIE "for a towering, incandescent presence and for raising the bar to celestial heights in her full-tilt performances," she is the founder and artistic director of Company Nora Chipaumire. She is featured in the documentary "Movement (R)evolution Africa".

Credits:
director: Alla Kovgan and David Hinton
screenplay: Alla Kovgan, David Hinton, Nora Chipaumire
choreographer: Nora Chipaumire
orginal score: Thomas Mapfumo
performers: Nora Chipaumire, Souleymane Badolo and many extras
cinematographer: Mkrtich Malkhasyan (above stills credit: Mkrtich Malkhasyan)
editor: Alla Kovgan
producer: Joan Frosch
production company: Movement Revolution Productions (MRP)
distributor: MRP
country of production: USA, UK, Mozambique
commissioned by EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission 2007, supported by The Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts - Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA

www.movementrevolutionafrica.com/nora

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