UNTIL THE MOON IS BORN IN THE WEST
(2023 | 24min)
Together with dancers who have experienced war and flight the dance short film "Until the moon is born in the west" is narrating the path of one human being on the run through movement and sound: From the feeling of hopelessness in a destroyed home, the suffocating fear when being on the run at sea to desolation and all the hopes when arriving in Berlin.
Dancers: Joy Alpuerto Ritter. Ali Enani. Marcelo Omine. Lujain Mustafa. Mouafak Aldoabl. Exocé Kasongo. Joana Kern. Osman Osman.
Choreographers: Raphael Moussa Hillebrand. Medhat Aldaabal
Writer. Director: Lea Bethke
A Firmament and Sinne Film Production
IN VENUS
(2022 | 28min)
With humor and with body four women explore their sexuality. They take possession of their bodies, deconstruct Western ideals of beauty, reduce them to absurdity and celebrate their unabashed femininity. "In Venus" is a celebration of sensuality, in which female bodies are simply bodies, liberated from objectification and the colonization of the patriarchal gaze.
Dancers: Edith Buttingsrud Pedersen.
Choreographer. Director. Editor: Edith Buttingsrud Pedersen
DOP. Editor: Lea Bethke
SELECTED WORKS
KRISTIAN
(2025 | 15min)
“Kristian” tells the story of a dancer dealing with the aftermath of sexual abuse. Through visual poetry, movement and interviews, she speaks of her trauma and how to identify herself after the event. We go through the different processes and phases from right after the abuse until today 20 years later.
It portraits the emotions, the confusion and the fight against victimisation, opens the questions “Is it me or is it my trauma?” How much does our trauma shape us? And what effects does it have on our body. It aims at sharing an honest narrative, that has no answers and openly questions the effects it has had on her relationship to her sexuality, body and partnerships.
Dancer. Director. Choreographer: Edith Buttingsrud Pedersen
DOP. Editor: Lea Bethke
FALLEN
(2019 | 3min)
On a late summer's night in Berlin, a group of dancers drifts through the city’s warm, pulsating streets. The mood of a late summer night flows through their movements, effortlessly as if the world weighs nothing. The taste of ephemerality on their lips, they melt into laughter and the fleeting beauty of a summer evening.
Dancers: Minhtu Ngyuen. Pelin Terzi. Jasmin Marshall. Lyn Lim, Daniel. Asamoah. Mike Fiech. Ioannis Hatsis. Jonathan Ott.
Choreography: Fatoumata Camara
Video: Lea Bethke
DARLING NIKKI
(2018 | 2min)
Shot in black and white and inspired by the aesthetics of film noir, a woman dances into the embrace of her beauty.
In defiance of European beauty standards, she flows in sensual movements and grows into her femininity. Every touch an act of liberation. Every move self-empowerment.
The camera engages in a dance with her, capturing glimpses of her body, sometimes cloaked in shadow, sometimes caught in the stark light that exposes every curve and line. Toying with form and matter, she embraces the power and sensuality of her own form.
Dancer. Choreographer: Fatoumata Camara
Director. DOP. Editor: Lea Bethke
Still.Life
(C/O Berlin Foundation 2018 | 4min)
They appear silently and out of nowhere, their movements are fleeting, spontaneous, delicate and expansive.
Dancers from Sasha Waltz & Guests interact scenically with Irving Penn's photographs. They subordinate and withdraw from the viewer's gaze. They construct and deconstruct the gallery space with their movements.
As Part of the Exhibition
Irving Penn. Centennial-The Photographer of the Century
24.03.-01.07.2018
Dancers: Jirí Bartovanec. Peggy Grelat-Dupont. Hwanhee Hwang. Annapaola Leso. Nicola Mascia. Stylianos Tsatsos. Corey Scott-Gilbert.
Video: Lea Bethke
"When the camera manages to capture the bodies in motion, to expand their movements and to start dancing itself, then a new genre is created. The symbiosis of the moving body and the moving image creates a narrative that is completely different from dance on stage. The possibility of using the lens to direct the focus and capture details is an opportunity to explore a new world. The world of the body and its language becomes a visceral experience."
Lea Bethke
