SKETCH FILMS: RED THREAD
Crack the Dark
2-minute excerpt from “Crack the Dark” a film for SKETCH FILMS : Red Thread by Amy Seiwert, Kris Samuelson, and John Haptas
Re-watch the online screening party here.
Seiwert’s Crack the Dark is a collaboration with Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmakers Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas.
Crack the Dark is inspired by Sacramento chef Patrick Mulvaney. Mulvaney, a leader in Sacramento's Farm to Fork scene and pioneer in mental health advocacy for the hospitality industry, found a way to continue serving his community after being forced by the pandemic to close his restaurant. Seiwert was drawn to the parallels between what is happening in Mulvaney's field and her own.
Crack the Dark features Imagery alumni Weston Krukow (Smuin Ballet, An American in Paris) with an original score composed by Emily Hope Price.
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This film was shot in Sacramento, CA. We acknowledge that this area was and still is the land of the Ninesan people.
MEET THE TEAM
KRIS SAMUELSON and JOHN HAPTAS’s award-winning documentary essays have been screened at festivals throughout the world, from Sundance and San Francisco to London, Rio, Belgrade, India, Germany, and South Korea. They have appeared on PBS and cable television and at museums including New York MOMA. Empire of the Moon was made possible by a Cité Des Arts International Studio Residency in Paris, and Tokyo Waka, which screened at Film Forum in New York City, was supported by a Japan-U.S. Creative Artists Fellowship. Kristine and John have also been Artists in Residence at the Victoria College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, and taught master classes at the Hanoi Academy of Theater and Cinema in Vietnam. Their most recent film, Life Overtakes Me, a NETFLIX Original Documentary, premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, won Audience Awards at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the Chicago Critics Film Festival, and was nominated for an Academy Award.
To learn more about Kris and John, please visit:
AMY SEIWERT enjoyed a nineteen-year performing career dancing with the Smuin, LA Chamber and Sacramento Ballets.
As a dancer with Smuin Ballet she became involved with the “Protégé Program” where her choreography was mentored by the late Michael Smuin, and became Choreographer in Residence there upon her retirement from dancing in 2008. Named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine, her first full evening of choreography was named one of the “Top 10” dance events of 2007 by the SF Chronicle.
Twice she has worked with dancers from New York City Ballet, participating in the NY Choreography Institute. Collaborations include works with visual designers Marc Morozumi and Matthew Antaky, composers Daniel Bernard Roumain and Mason Bates, media designer Frieder Weiss and spoken-word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph.
She is honored to have been an Artist in Residence at ODC Theater from 2013-15, the first National Artist in Residence with the Joyce Theater in 2017, and to have works in the repertory of Ballet Austin, BalletMet, Smuin, Washington, Atlanta, Oakland, Sacramento, Colorado, Louisville, Cincinnati, Carolina, Oklahoma City, Dayton, Milwaukee and American Repertory Ballets as well as Robert Moses KIN.
From July 2018 - July 2020 Amy Seiwert was Artistic Director with Sacramento Ballet.
EMILY HOPE PRICE received a master’s degree in Cello Performance from Carnegie Mellon University studying with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Principle cellist Anne-Martindale Williams and PSO Associate cellist David Premo. Emily relocated to complete a one year post-graduate program in cello performance at SUNY Purchase with cellist Julia Lichten of The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Since graduating, she has performed and recorded for various musicians all over the east coast and abroad.
On January 4, 2010, Emily undertook The 365 Project, a year long, song-a-day exercise that was blogged about daily at http://www.emilyhopeprice.com, inspired by musician Brian Speaker, who completed his own song-a-day-for-a-year project, Spiral Notebook. Fortuitously, the project was interrupted when Emily was asked to score and supervise the independent feature film “Unicorn City” with the help of producer/engineer James Frazee. On June 1, 2009, she released her first solo studio-EP, “The Crux and The Bluestocking”, and since The 365 Project‘s inception, Emily released several limited edition EPs of select 365 songs – each release contained different selections from the 365 Project. All releases of The Crux and the Bluestocking as well as any 365 Project recordings were hand-made and hand-pressed.
WESTON KRUKOW returns to Imagery to collaborate on a new dance film with Amy Seiwert.
Amy and Wes first worked together in 2011 before he graduated from the University of Arizona. His first job was with Imagery the summer of 2012, and this marked the beginning of his relationship with San Francisco’s dance scene. Wes then worked with Smuin Ballet for three years while continuing his partnership with Imagery. In 2015 Weston, along with Ben Needham-Wood and their Comcast SportsNet team, became an Emmy award winning Choreographer creating and producing BaseBallet. Two years later, Weston and Ben’s company Athletic Art Productions won four more Emmys with BaseBallet: Into the Game. 2016 marked his final year on the Smuin Ballet team, but began his freelancing career, performing at the Lyric Opera under Helen Pickett's Les Troyens and touring as a Swing then Dance Captain both Nationally and Internationally with Christopher Wheeldon’s An American In Paris. Currently Wes has been filling his days with different artistic endeavors. He’s teaching dance and painting classes nationwide via zoom, he’s performing pop-up shows with Movement Headquarters in New York’s Parks, and he’s singing and cooking daily. Weston deeply thanks his family, friends, and teachers for guiding his path that humbles and inspires him everyday.
PATRICK MULVANEY is Proprietor and Chef. A leading public policy advocate on the national stage, Patrick is one of the people working to make Sacramento the “Farm-to-Fork” capital of the country. The eclectic culinary creations at Mulvaney’s B&L are a direct reflection of his diverse background, which includes a European apprenticeship and experience in top New York restaurants before falling in love with Sacramento—and its year-round growing season—when he moved here in 1991.
Patrick is a pioneer in shining the light on mental health issues in the hospitality industry. His story served as an inspiration for the film. We specifically want to highlight his organization I Got Your Back.
SKETCH FILM : RED THREAD
Four Cities, Four Stories, One Shared Thread
In celebration the 10th anniversary of the SKETCH SERIES and in response to the changing art landscape due to COVID-19, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery produced four documentary dance films, entitled SKETCH FILMS: Red Thread.
Red Thread featured world premieres by SKETCH alumni, including Artistic Director Amy Seiwert, Artistic Fellow Ben Needham-Wood, Chicago-based choreographer Stephanie Martinez (SKETCH 9), and NYC-based choreographer Jennifer Archibald (SKETCH 8). Both Martinez and Archibald are winners of the Joffrey Ballet’s "Winning Works: Choreographers of Color” commissions.
Red Threads’ original scores will be composed by Kishi Bashi and Emily Hope Price and Philip Hamilton.