CORNERBOY is a captivating dance film that won the 2023 Jury Award at the 7th Annual LA Dance Film Festival in November!

Director - Kai Kurve
Dancer - Piotr Simba Abramowicz
Director of Photography - Julian C. Steiner
Music - Moderat
The Fly - Emerald Imogen
Executive Producer - Karina Kirschner
Creative Executive Producer - Kai Kurve
Edit - Hannes Andresen

SYNOPSIS: A bad boy gets possessed by a fly (aka the devil/death) which confronts him with his own personality. This narration is wrapped up in a fresh genre-bending experimental dance film.

We Had The Pleasure Of Interviewing Director Kai Kurve!

Kai Kurve from Berlin, Germany. Based on his studies in Fine Arts, he has worked through the years. Based on his liberal arts studies, he worked his way through various forms of creativity over the years. For more than 10 years he has been working successfully as a director for advertising. But from time to time he wants to create something that doesn't sell anything but itself. His film Cornerboy is such a result.

What was your inspiration for "CORNERBOY”?

The inspiration for CORNERBOY is multi-layered. It actually all started with the fact that as a commercial director, I felt restricted in a certain playing time and also thematic areas. And there is less room to no room for experiments. So I made the decision to shoot something longer myself, to go darker in mood, and to use themes and images that I could never use in a commercial. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy commercials too. But as a director who takes himself seriously in the profession, there's more to create, some of it is outside of what can be used in a commercial. That's one thing.

Another thing was that I was in hospital with a back injury and I had lost my mobility. Instagram kept flushing Piotr (main cast) into my timeline at the time (I already knew him from a commercial job we did together). At that moment, Piotr's expressive energetic dance style resonated with me, who could just lie around a lot. From these two insights, I developed the idea for CORNERBOY. I wanted an emotional Dance film, that a least tries to break out of the classic dance film genre borders. I watched a lot of dance films, very strong pieces, but they often had a common idea. Great performances in interesting architectural environments or Nature. Great films, but I thought immediately, what could be my take on it. I wanted to use dance in a different way for my film. I wanted more Story. Dance made it possible for me to tell a bigger story in only 06:06 minutes and still give a depth to the state of the main character. The dance level works like a shortcut to the feeling of the protagonist. A direct quick look at his inner self.

I threw a few ideas together at first. I just like crime stories for example. Things like La Hain, Top Boy, and Goodfellas. But I also like supernatural stuff like Suspiria (2018), Rosmarie's Baby, Angle Heart, Possession. Things with a surreal touch, because I believe surrealism shows “the reality“ best. Just by being off to what is considered normal.

The off voice (fly) of CORNERBOY takes up these film references and sometimes even refers to them as quotes. For example, “Don't get high on your own supply!“ from Scarface. Also heard later as hip hop hook in the soundtrack of “Menace to society“.

The camera is part of the choreography even before the audience arrives at the dancer. Was that intentional and how did you achieve fluid camera movement throughout the film?

It was intentional. I wanted a camera that is always on the move to create the urgency and energy for the narrative and the dance. Also to create a sense of the changing perspectives of the fly. We used for some shots a traditional steady cam and in addition to this (especially for the dance moments) we used kind of a new toy. It´s a mix of a jib arm and a crane with an extra mobility through extra joints. You can bring the camera in all position, angles very fluidly and easy. I found this product on Instagram it´s called the Nutron by a company with the name Cinetica from Munichin Germany. I've contacted them and they really liked the Idea and supported the project for low budget. Shout out to these guys. Of course Julian the DOP was involved in this decision. But I think I speak for both of us. This was a great decision when it comes to the mobility of the camera.

What was the collaboration process with the dancer? Had you worked together before or was he a dancer you had specifically cast for this project?

At the time of filming, the idea was still quite loose. I had written a series of scenes that I knew I could chain together into a story. And I knew that there would be an off-screen voice that would indirectly establish the actual connections between the images. The briefing for Piotr for most of the time was really just "you're possessed and you're reliving your own being as a criminal." There was no real choreography. We worked it out during the shoot and created the film on the spot. There was very little direction from me to him in this case. Except for the scenic elements and the transitional images. Piotr just instinctively got it right and presented a wonderful performance.

We’re excited that the film is available online!

"An extraordinarily well-done film!" - Josh S. Rose

Learn more about Kai:

Website: https://www.kaikurve.de/

Instagram: @kai_kurve

Images, film synopsis & bio provided by Kai Kurve.

A huge thank you to our 2023 Film Festival Award Jury: Josh S. Rose, Ali Kenner Brodsky & Andrew Margetson.

2023 Curatorial Team: Nicole Manoochehri, Nadav Heyman & Olivia Mia Orozco Saper.