KISD graduate Mayan Reiter’s short film The___Between Us (9′30″) will be screened at this year’s Moovy Dance Film Festival in Cologne. Come by and see it on the big screen!
The _____ Between Us (9′30″)
Short experimental film / screendance
Set beneath an open sky, a story exploring themes of human connection unfolds through dance, dialogue, and AI-generated imagery.
Moovy Dance Film Festival
Saturday, 10 October 2026 · 18:00
Filmforum NRW at Museum Ludwig
Bischofsgartenstr. 1 · 50667 Cologne
About the film:
https://maayanreiter.com/project/the-_____-between-us/
Moovy programme + more info:
https://www.moovy-festival.com/kurzfilme-3-2026/
Logline
Set beneath an open sky, a story exploring themes of human connection unfolds through dance, dialogue, and AI-generated imagery.
Synopsis
The _____ Between Us invites viewers to reflect on how we relate to one another, to ourselves, and to the world around us. Through contact improvisation technique and digital compositing, a narrative unfolds. Movements draw from physical principles such as responsiveness, weight-sharing, touch, and momentum. Digital transformations fluidly alternate between the dancers, continuously reshaping their visual identities. This shared dance with a partner shows how we perceive others through our own inner states of longing, fear, acceptance, resistance, curiosity, and more. The film encourages us to notice our emotional state and how it shapes how we interpret and project ourselves onto others. It calls our attention back to what is already present: our bodies, our awareness, and the _____ between us.
Director Statement
When we come into contact with others, from what state are we interacting? How can we perceive beyond our assumptions? Can we choose to relate from curiosity rather than suspicion and fear?
In The _____ Between Us, I was drawn to the gap between what is said and what is heard, and how quickly we project our inner world onto another person. Words are everywhere, yet we often respond to what we imagine rather than what is meant. Meaning shifts through the listener’s inner state, whether it is fear and resistance, or curiosity and openness.
Working across dance, film, and motion design, I use contact improvisation as a grounded practice of listening through touch, weight-sharing, and responsiveness. I used dialogue as an entry point, then let the duets shift the meaning of the words through the body. Compositing and AI-generated imagery extend the movement into elemental textures, amplifying emotion as a natural force and deepening attention to the physicality of contact improvisation.
Pic © Maayan Reiter