LOOKING GLASS
2016 · 4m · USA
Directed by Celia Rowlson-Hall
Genres: drama, experimental
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A woman alone in an empty apartment slowly rediscovers joy through spontaneous movement; what begins as solitude becomes liberation as the choreography accumulates and the space transforms around her.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Alongside AFLOAT, this piece forms a diptych demonstrating Rowlson-Hall's sustained argument that choreography is cinema's most underutilized syntax; Filmmaker magazine's '25 New Faces' selection and Venice selection for MA confirm she is making this argument within recognized institutional frames.
Rowlson-Hall solo in an apartment, joy through movement. It's a Derek Lam fashion film and that's fine — the choreography is the dramaturgy is a true claim here.
Celia Rowlson-Hall turns an empty apartment after a breakup into pure choreographic dramaturgy — Andrew Droz Palermo shoots it, Iva Radivojevic cuts it, and grief becomes movement without a single word. Quietly devastating in 4:22.