Philip Szporer has been immersed in the Canadian dance world for the past 30 years. Currently, he teaches in the Contemporary Dance department at Concordia University and is a Scholar-in-Residence at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts. In 1999, he was awarded a Pew Fellowship (National Dance/Media Project), at the University of California, Los Angeles. And in 2010 he was the recipient of the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize awarded by the Canada Council of the Arts.
In 2001, Philip along with Marlene Millar co-founded the arts film production company Mouvement Perpétuel. Together they have co-directed and produced many documentaries and short dance films to great acclaim. Their work is seen widely a festivals worldwide and at major events such as the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the 2010 Shanghai Expo, and a UNESCO tour of Latin America.
They have just completed their newest film, Lost Action: Trace, a stereoscopic (3D) live action/animated dance film created in collaboration with celebrated choreographer Crystal Pite and animator Theodore Ushev, which was produced at the National Film Board of Canada. Currently Mouvement Perpétuel is also working on a site-specific short dance-film entitled Dafeena, featuring the choreography of Natasha Bakht, as well as developing a cross-platform documentary series.
Philip’s activities as a broadcast journalist have included stints at CBC Radio, as a dance columnist for Radio-Canada’s radio arts magazine Aux arts, etc., and correspondent for The World (BBC/WGBH-Boston). His dance writings have been published in Hour, The Dance Current, Ballettanz, Tanz, and Dance Magazine, among others. Philip has also worked as a choreographic facilitator in Montreal, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States and has given writing workshops and has lectured across Canada, the United States, and Europe.
With a background in contemporary dance and design, Montreal filmmaker Marlene Millar created her first award winning film The Woman and the Sink in 1989. Marlene received her BFA in Film Production from Concordia University, studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1999 received a Pew Dance Media Fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles.
In 2001 Marlene and Philip Szporer co-founded the production company Mouvement Perpétuel, directing and producing acclaimed arts documentaries and dance films. Their television broadcast partners have included Bravo!, APTN, the Documentary Channel and Bold. Their work is widely seen in festivals internationally and has been featured at world events including the 2010 Cultural Olympics, the World Exhibition in Shanghai, a UNESCO tour of Latin America and recently in retrospective at Quartiers Danses in Montreal. Ongoing projects include a cross-platform documentary series and Dafeena, a site specific dance film with choreographer Natasha Bakht. Lost Action: Trace, a stereoscopic (3D) live action/animated film with choreographer Crystal Pite, animator Theodore Ushev and produced by the National Film Board of Canada has just been completed.
Marlene directs videos for dancer Louise Lecavalier, choreographer Lynda Gaudreau, and poet Ian Ferrier, amongst others, and has created film installations such as Quarantaine 4 x 4 with Charmaine LeBlanc at the Société des arts technologiques (SAT), and Sing, Juk Sing with visual artist Mary Sui-Yee Wong at OBORO.
Mentoring emerging filmmakers through programs such as Equité at the National Film Board has been an important part of Marlene's activities since 1994. She has taught, and teaches, filmmaking workshops across Canada and internationally at institutes such as Centre Imagine in Burkino Faso, Impulstanz in Vienna, University of Bowling Green in Ohio, and recently in Helsinki, Finland. She is currently acting as a lead mentor for Stories From Our Land with the Nunavut Film Commission and the National Film Board of Canada. Marlene also has an established career as a film editor.
Marlene is on the Board of Directors at Main Film and is a long standing member of the Documentary Organization of Canada.