Jazz on Screen 2026

Cut Me Summa Dat Noise celebrates the rhythms of everyday life through the eyes of a neighborhood matriarch who sets the tone for a new day with the beat of her own heart. As the neighborhood comes to life, people of all ages unite in a joyous cacophony of sound that illuminates the connections between them as members of a vibrant and diverse community in rhythm.

Agui Luz, survivor of the Tower of Aeries collapse, seeks refuge from his survivor’s guilt at a mysterious clinic — only to find himself caught in a deeper test, one that may reveal a calling he’s spent years trying to escape.

A tap dancer (Kirsten Millan) and a drummer (Jasmine Celeste) have a percussive conversation inspired by the different phases of the night.

What is it about clouds? It’s their appeal as a simple pleasure. Their consistent presence across time. It’s the possibility, and how it can shift so quickly. Taking imagination along. While they cannot be seen every moment or even every day or week, they always come back, bringing along whimsical delight. For as long as I can remember, I have found them a source of fascination. It’s how they can only be predicted so well. In trying to better embody adaptability, they are an apt reminder that you can dress for the weather, but the winds shift. It’s that they deliver rain, both destructive and cleansing, a source of both chaos and calm. It’s like that, isn’t it? It’s how they can look and feel both big and small. I feel that way too. To me, they are anything but frivolous fluff. They are precipitous wonder. I don’t stop and smell the roses so much as I stop and observe the clouds.

Armed with memory, an Ancestor emerges from the waters of Michigami to address calls for redemption from denizens of Black Chicago. Shapeshifting to traverse the city, the Ancestor deploys the ritual of dance within and upon sacred spaces to invoke the spirit of the people and land. In this way, the Ancestor reminds the people who they are and where they are yet to go, and transforms their grief for Chairman Fred Hampton, Mayor Harold Washington, and Ben Wilson – opening new paths for Black manhood.

Money is a dance film that exposes the monotonous cycle of corporate America’s 9-to-5 structure. Set within a workplace that gradually distorts into a corporate nightmare, the dancers embody employees navigating a system built on rigidity, control, and quiet dehumanization. Through sharp, unconventional movement vocabulary, the film highlights the tension between conformity and rebellion, questioning the values of productivity, success, and efficiency that define everyday work culture. It reflects how corporate systems can blur identity, reduce individuality, and normalize exhaustion as achievement. At its core, Money challenges capitalist ideals embedded in American workplace culture. It breaks traditional choreographic boundaries to reveal a system that demands uniformity while suppressing personal expression. Beneath its structure, the film carries rebellious undertones creating space for resistance, play, and the reclaiming of individuality within a controlled space.

“…They loathe art, the product of a yearning for life, because that, too, evades control.” – Josef Skvorecky

From Jazz to Jackboots is an experimental animated dance film exploring the Nazi regime’s methodical restriction of jazz through their “10 Rules for Dance Bands.” The film reimagines itself through progressively censored variations of jazz standard, “Minnie the Moocher,” transitioning from freeform expressionist painting and collage to statuesque perfection. Through sophisticated animation techniques and meticulous visual design, the work unfolds as simultaneously joyful, lyrical, ethereal, surgical, horrific and funereal — a timely reminder that the battle between artistic expression and authoritarian control remains urgently relevant today. AUDIENCE WARNING: This film references Nazi propaganda and may be unsuitable for some viewers.

This film explores the alternate, dark memories of a abandoned spaces, revealing fragments of a forgotten past or glimpses into a possible future. In the space between shadow and light, time and memory, we see two characters dancing in a dark corner of a warehouse. Sweat drips and hair sticks to moist skin. The scene is dark and grungy. Deeply transfixed in the moment where inhibitions are lost in an ecstatic, dreamlike state. Punctuated with interjections of mental turmoil and aggression, the bodies clash and entwine in this disjointed duet. Everyone Left is a title which holds a number of meanings and interpretations. Initially a response to the way in which abandoned spaces, carry memories of their previous existence and use. We imagined how the workforce downed tools and walked out, never to return, leaving space for creatives to move in. Warehouses are synonymous with electronic music and parties in the late 80s and 90s, our narrative finds two dancers, the only ones there after everyone left, who’ve met at the party and experienced a moment of connection together. The choreography is built on the left hand side of the body, a quirt of being a left handed choreographer, and something that was picked up upon by the dancers as they learnt the movement. The final correlation came through the terms of use of the music, the artist Moby allowed the rights to use the track as long as it is not used to promote right wing agendas (only left). The film is designed to be projected on two independent vertical screens and is presented here as a single screen piece.

One night in Buenos Aires, a group of friends gather at a milonga (Tango Social Club) to enjoy a challenging dance piece in the form of a “fugue,” where emotions seep through their bodies and they immerse themselves in every note of each melody offered by this exciting and mysterious contrapuntal composition by the great Argentine musician Astor Piazzolla.

Join us above the Los Angeles skyline as one life-loving woman makes a surprise entrance. Commanding the attention of the entire party, she ignites the day and sparks connections between the Angelenos. You never know what might happen at a party in L.A., but “That’s Life” in Los Angeles!