Unseen Dancer
Director：Kevin Corbeil Palma
Screenwriter：Kevin Corbeil Palma
Cast：Johnny Wu, Ramona Kim, Zi Li, Maya Sealy & Alexia Acuña
Producer：Kevin Corbeil Palma & Evan Werbin
Cinematographer：Enzo Murthy
Running Time：6min24s
Region：Canada
Year：2023
Language：No dialogue
Production Company：Vancouver Film School
SYNOPSIS
As he is getting prepared to perform for the first time in a queer underground ballroom, Luca explores a jewel box that belonged to his mother. Now ready, he attempts to impress three stern judges and a crowd on the dance floor, but suddenly gets interrupted by the presence of his deceased mother, who stares at him. Trying to break this static and silent moment, Luca opens his arms to her, and she immediately embraces her son, relieving him from a huge emotional weight. Dancing together with the crowd, she slowly disappears, and Luca receives a trophy for his performance.
Director Biography
Kevin Corbeil Palma is a French Canadian-Panamanian writer & director who was born in Rouyn-Noranda, Québec, Canada. His work revolves around character-driven stories exploring the themes of cultural identity, queerness, family, immigration, assimilation, death, grief, traveling and self-discovery. He is known for the two queer short films Unseen Dancer (2023) and Intentsity (2023). He also directed Mothers, Deaths, & the Rest (2022), a short documentary exploring the theme of creativity as a path to cope with grief. He graduated with Honours the Vancouver Film School, with specializations in Directing and Cinematography. Raised in a home where watching movies was one of the main family activities, his passion for cinema solidified during his teenage years when his father gave him a Sony handheld camcorder to capture great memories during his experience as an exchange student in Germany. After studying natural sciences at the college in his hometown, Kevin relocated to Montreal to enter a private school of communication. Thirsty for new experiences in unfamiliar places, he made the decision to travel the world for few years with his brother before embarking on the path of cinema. This grand adventure was also a way to honor the deaths of their mother and father. Following two extensive backpacking excursions in Asia and an extended road trip in the USA, the brothers took the opportunity to become more deeply acquainted with their parents’ families of origin in Panama and Peru. With many completed short films under his belt, Kevin strives to create deeply transformative stories that will ignite hope and assist in building a more tolerant world.
Director's Statement
“Coming out to the Dead”. There is no better nor simpler way to express what lies at the core of the psychological drama “unseen dancer”. Amongst the plethora of coming out stories from the 2SLGBTQIAP+ global community, there are the ones we cannot do. Either we did not gather enough inner strength before our loved ones passed away, or they just left too early. People going through this situation face a daunting dead end. Standing in front of this impenetrable wall, their hearts are burdened with unexpressed feelings mixed with questions, fears, doubts, and countless torturous scenarios created in the mind. Without finding a specific solution, this is the subject tackled in this short film. Since we are in the realm of what is unspoken, “unseen dancer” is a musical and visual piece without a single word of dialogue. Following Luca, a gay man who is about to put himself out there and perform for the first time in an underground queer ballroom, the audience will experience an intimate and emotional dual reality of the protagonist arc. As he summons the resolve to open a wooden box bequeathed from his deceased mother in the dressing room, we also witness his first attempt to impress a crowd on the dance floor. Every detail of Luca’s exploration of this legacy is echoed in his performance in the ballroom. The surrealist appearance of his mother on the dance floor not only reflects the coming out he never had time to do, but also a part of his grieving process. The outcome of this mysterious encounter represents a state of mind chosen by Luca, who no longer wants to suffer from his unanswered questions and endless doubts. “Unseen Dancer” is a vibrant and colorful simple story with a diverse cast and crew that pay tribute to the queer ballroom culture of New York City during the 1980s and early 1990s. These events represent a way for the 2SLGBTQIAP+ community to unite and overcome the stigmas around different ethnic minorities, gender identities and sexual orientations. Luca’s performance is inspired from a freestyle dance called “waacking”, from the 2SLGBTQIAP+ clubs of Los Angeles during the 1970s disco era. On behalf of the whole team behind this beautiful project, we sincerely thank you for watching this film.
Leave a Comment