I'M HERE

Experimental, Short,

United Kingdom

2024

Runtime, min

I'm Here is a short film that emerges from rehearsals for the dance theater piece Life in this House is Over by director Samantha Shay. Exploring the social awkwardness of grief, and inspired by the writing of Anton Chekhov, the project gathers current and former artists of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, as well as the Grotowski Institute-based physical theater company Teatr ZAR, as a reflection on the lineages of Polish Jerzy Grotowski and German Pina Bausch, their relationship and how their work resonates today.

Director:

Samantha Shay

Selections and Awards:

REVIEWS:

The film’s structure feels both fragmentary and fluid, almost like grief itself. The influence of Chekhov seems evident in the silences and in the social tension between bodies. Samantha, was it your intention to create this sense of ‘unfinished conversations’ through movement rather than dialogue?

David Jilla

I felt like I was intruding on something very private, almost like watching people mourn without words

Emily Rodriguez

The gestures reminded me so strongly of Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater — that mixture of rawness and fragility

Alexander Par

The score felt almost invisible at times, like it was breathing with the dancers.

Antonio Gomes

There was a moment when the dancer folded in on herself, almost collapsing inward — that hit me so hard. It felt like grief made physical. How did you work with the performers to reach that level of vulnerability?

Anthony Patant