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Arte de Tango (trailer)

altin@mac.com — 2013-03-28T13:31:06+01:00

This trailer was made for Christiane Palha and her partner Jamshid Kurdi promoting their new collaboration with Das Mendelssohn Trio Berlin.
It was also my first (successful) collaboration with Noemi from DedosFilms. The studio conditions were not easy to create a nice atmosphere but with the help of Wijnand van der Horst as light designer, we all were happy with the results.

Milontan | Arte de Tango (trailer) from Altin Kaftira on Vimeo.

The story of a pearl...

altin@mac.com — 2013-03-27T13:19:45+01:00

This video was created last year, for De Lakenhal Museum in Leiden. Karin Post, a dance choreographer, artist and art curate created an exhibition about Parelen (Pearls). The exhibition wasn’t a straight forward history of Pearls but it had an artistic angle to it. Many famous choreographers like Jiri Kylian, Hans van Manen, Michael Schumacher created something new or used an existing choreography for this exhibition. Peter and I were commissioned to create something new also.
The videos are presented on 4 separate TV screens hanging on the wall. There are 4 scenes which conclude to the whole story. The 4 scenes run endlessly in a loop, to give the feeling that there isn’t a beginning or an end to this story.

Parelen (a short preview) from Altin Kaftira on Vimeo.

Waterdrops in Dance Camera West film festival in Los Angeles

altin@mac.com — 2013-03-24T13:10:42+01:00

The Waterdrops is selected for screening in the Dance Camera West dance media film festival in Los Angeles for the 12 annual dance media in May 2013.
the theme for this year’s festival is “get wet’

Waterdrops (longer version) from Altin Kaftira on Vimeo.

Mirsa Adami promoting her first album CD in Netherlands

altin@mac.com — 2013-03-22T13:05:42+01:00

Mirsa Adami is one of the few Albanian artists, which lives in Netherlands.
She makes Albania very proud in the international artistic world.
I created this video, in which Mirsa is promoting her first album CD in Netherlands

Mirsa Adami (CD) "Oude liefde, eeuwige liefde" F. Chopin & C. Debussy from Altin Kaftira on Vimeo.

Albanian Cultural Day in Gorinchem, Netherlands

altin@mac.com — 2012-08-15T23:32:32+02:00

Albanian Cultural Day in Gorinchem, Netherlands.
This is the 1st ever Albanian cultural day in Netherlands. Dancing, singing, literature, art, traditional food and a lot more.
It was an exciting day to meet the other fellow Albanians and share together the day.

Dita e Kulturës Shqiptare në, Hollandë (Gorinchem, 2 Qershor 2012) from Altin Kaftira on Vimeo.

Sarah Oates (violin) and Artur Trajko (cello) are playing Johannes Brahms ‘Double Concerto in A minor, OP 102

altin@mac.com — 2012-09-15T23:15:37+02:00

Together with Mathieu, we recorded this ‘live’ performance of Holland Symfonia in Haarlem
Solists Sarah Oates (violin) and Artur Trajko (cello) are playing Johannes Brahms ‘Double Concerto in A minor, OP 102
Conducted by Otto Tausk

variations

altin@mac.com — 2012-06-03T20:27:22+02:00

With beautiful and expressive music from Benjamin Britten, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Astor Piazolla and Stefan Kovács this video gave a preview of the Hans van Manen’s latest ballet musical choices. Hans always chooses very special music for his creations.
Hebe Mensinga from Holland Symphonia played a selection of the music for our cameras.

the nature of difference

altin@mac.com — 2012-06-01T23:22:16+02:00

Humphrey (the painter) comes every so often in the ballet studios to draw dancers and their movements.
We thought of creating this video for the company and him.

nest

altin@mac.com — 2012-04-22T13:18:17+02:00

We created this video to be played in front of Krzysztof Pastor’s new ballet. This video didn’t fit well with his new creation so it actually never made it to the ‘big screen’
We had fun shooting this one, throwing feathers all over the studio. However at some point the fun had to stop and we had to clean up all that mess.
Erica was great and as always beautiful in front of the camera

waterdrops

altin@mac.com — 2012-04-21T12:58:44+02:00

It was fun editing this video, however it was hard and very much ‘illegal’ shooting this one. Somehow we had to create a pool of water within the ballet studio. I won’t go into details because we may get fired ;)
Laura was fun to work with, so was Juanjo. Juanjo helped Laura with a few steps from his new choreography, which he had created for Dutch National Ballet. This video was played just before his new creation.

duet

altin@mac.com — 2012-04-20T23:53:07+02:00

This video too is a short version of the original, which is another minute longer.
This video was fun to film, making the veils fly in the air with a few ventilators.

The clip was played for Dutch Nationale Ballet’s ‘Present/s’ program, just before the newest creating of Christopher Wheeldon was performed, which was also called ‘duet’ ;)

a memory

altin@mac.com — 2012-04-19T22:15:28+02:00

We shot this video in the National Park Zuid-Kennemerland near Het Vogelmeer

For this video we had to ask Megan (the dancer), to dress with dance clothes in the middle of a very cold Dutch winter in January and the worse was to ask her to get in the water. She made it look like it was summertime. She was incredible. Because it’s a national park we could only get to the location with bicycles, which meant we didn’t have any comforting warm clothes for Megan after we finished each shoot.

This 60 seconds video is a shorter version from the original, which was created for Dutch National Ballet’s program ‘Present/s’ in February 2012.
For this program together with Mathieu, we created about 9 short films, each video had to fit in in some ways with each of the 9 new ballet that were created for the company in February. This video was created to be played before Alexei Ratmansky’s new creation.

Holiday in Italy with my beautiful girl :)

altin@mac.com — 2012-01-13T22:43:54+01:00

my girl, Rome, Siena, Florence and the random lady singer. We were listening to her street concert, on Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence
I hadn’t planned to make such video for this holiday. My recordings were just to have them for future use.
The coincidence of filming the singer on the street gave me the idea to make a video-clip like video.
I recorded about 5-6 songs until I liked the one I used for this clip.
The lady continued singing for more then 1 hour. I thought she was quite a good singer.
I regret I didn’t get her contact details to let her know about the video, though.
If anyone meets or knows the singer, please get her contact details for me or let her know about the video :)

The TEDx Amsterdam 2011 trailer

altin@mac.com — 2011-11-25T22:36:43+01:00

TEDx Amsterdam (trailer)
For this project dance2film worked closely with WE ARE Pi agency to realize such an almost impossible task.
Creating a human brain with human bodies was an immense challenge but the results were a ‘perfect’ brain.
dance2film was involved as co-director in this project together with Bill Tanakka
The choreography was created by Ernst Meisner

A NATION UNITED, IDEAS UNITED
The Dutch National Ballet, Rutger Hauer and Amsterdam’s creative community come together over ideas worth doing for TEDxAmsterdam.

The TEDxAmsterdam 2011 (rehearsal trailer)

altin@mac.com — 2011-11-15T09:07:58+01:00

For this project dance2film worked closely with WE ARE Pi agency to realize such an almost impossible task.
Creating a human brain with human bodies was an immense challenge but the results were a ‘perfect’ brain.
dance2film was involved as co-director in this project together with Bill Tanakka
The choreography was created by Ernst Meisner
This video is the rehearsal of it

A NATION UNITED, IDEAS UNITED
The Dutch National Ballet, Rutger Hauer and Amsterdam’s creative community come together over ideas worth doing for TEDxAmsterdam.

Switch the Movie (Omscholingsregeling for dancers)

altin@mac.com — 2011-11-11T22:49:31+01:00

Omscholingsregeling in Netherlands is a re-schooling scheme for retiring dancers. This scheme is quite unique.
This scheme helps dancers who stop with dancing, find or support their new careers.
dance2film (Mathieu and myself) made this short film for the 25th anniversary of the Omscholingsregeling.
The film was first shown during a dance gala on October 31st 2011.

Roemjana & Koen interview

altin@mac.com — 2011-11-08T22:45:06+01:00

Roemjana & Koen are latin/ballroom choreographers.
Recently they are TV stars for such programs as ‘Dance Challenge’ and ‘So You Think You Can Dance’
For this interview I worked together with Mathieu, my dance2film partner
this is the part 2 of the interview. Part 1 can be seen here.
The dancing images are courtesy of RTL

Tango @ the castle (trailer)

altin@mac.com — 2011-11-06T22:36:59+01:00

this trailer is made for a tango show which was performed live at Castle Amerongen in Netherlands.
For the show I created a short film as if the story was live. The end of the film connects with the live performance of the tango show. The end of the tango show connect again with video images as if the story continues live

Mikhail Baryshnikov (exclusive interview)

altin@mac.com — 2011-09-01T23:01:18+02:00

Mr. Mikhail Baryshnikov gave this interview exclusively during the Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival in Groningen, Netherlands. In this festival Mr. Baryshnikov is performing 'In Paris' a play from the Russian director Dmitry Krymov.
It was a very special moment for me personally as Mr. Baryshnikov was my dancer idol which I have followed from the distance since when I was in the ballet school in Albania back in late '80. The first time I had the pleasure to watch him dance live on stage was only in 2009 when Mr. Baryshnikov danced with Ana Laguna in Amsterdam.

The interview was filmed by dance2film (Altin & Mathieu)

This interview was made possible by the arrangements of danspubliek.nl

Katja & James wedding

altin@mac.com — 2011-08-01T09:47:49+02:00

Katja is a friend of mine and a former colleague at Dutch National Ballet.
She was inspired by my recent film works so she trusted me to film her wedding in Stockholm.
The wedding was a very special one. It was a very stylish and beautifully organized wedding in beautiful locations.
But the most noticeable thing, was that there was love everywhere and the whole day :)

I filmed this wedding with my friend Mathieu. Since the results of the film came out quite nice and the feedback was immensely positive, we are considering offering such service to anyone who likes our way of working.

Personal Space

altin@mac.com — 2011-06-20T18:41:25+02:00

Personal Space was awarded the 3rd place winner in Choreographic Captures 2011 in Munich, Germany. The official ceremony for the awards will be held on saturday, June the 25th in Munich.

Cherkaoui/Dawson trailer

altin@mac.com — 2011-06-20T18:35:51+02:00

This is the latest trailer for Dutch National Ballet for the Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and David Dawson program this month (June)

Sleeping Beauty (trailer)

altin@mac.com — 2011-01-29T22:58:34+01:00

a short trailer of the ballet Sleeping Beauty performed by Dutch National Ballet in December 2010

Sylvia (trailer)

altin@mac.com — 2011-05-29T22:49:01+02:00

a 1 minute trailer of the new ballet of John Neumeier's 'Sylvia' by Dutch National Ballet

T.K.O. (T.aK.e it O.utside)

altin@mac.com — 2011-05-24T11:34:09+02:00

My friends Sefton Clarke, dancer with Het Nationale Ballet (HNB) and Yaset Artola Rosell, a former dancer with HNB, offer a special training that anyone can be part of. It takes part outdoors rather than in a gym. It's hard work but lots of fun too and at the end of it you will feel that you have not only surpassed your limits but that you have achieved something the other gym bunnies haven't!
Enjoy!

HNB fast forward

altin@mac.com — 2011-06-02T23:20:48+02:00

This clip was produced to present mainly to potential sponsors for HNB. It was shot to show the dancers day within 2min 30 secs.

HNB fast forward from Altin Kaftira on Vimeo.

Erica Horwood

altin@mac.com — 2011-05-22T23:14:37+02:00

This fashion like video was shot as a test to make a similar shoot for the dancers of HNB. HNB is soon to announce the new website and a shorter version of such clip, could be placed in the dancers profile pages. The clip then it would be something like 30-40 secs.

Erica Horwood from Altin Kaftira on Vimeo.

the (un)making of the pointe shoe

altin@mac.com — 2005-11-05T00:55:09+01:00

This 2 minutes clip seems to be my most popular one yet as in YouTube has attracted more than 101.000 viewers.
It was shot back in 2005 as part of a ballet and film mixed performance with Dutch National Ballet and 5 short clips created by me.
This clip was shot in the Freed factory in London. It was quite n experience to visit the factory. It was nothing like I had expected it to be.
Nothing shinny, nothing glamorous about the location but these shoe masters did produce some special work to keep our ballerinas on their toes ;)
The dancer who features in the video is the former principal dancer Yumiko Takeshima, who now is famously known for her ballet wear that our dancers wear for rehearsals and performances. Visit Yumiko’s site here

2 hearts 1 pulse - a short film

altin@mac.com — 2009-01-31T00:28:25+01:00

This short film was made during my film studies in 2008 and I finished editing it while I was still living in Italy in 2009. It was a very special experience working with the team. The story is a very simple one. The main point of this short story was that even something so ordinary, like a daisy in springtime, can mean something very deep and significant in someone’s life.
The film is in Dutch with English subtitles. It was shot in the beautiful location of Marken and Volendam
The film was finalist for Best Short of the Central Florida Film Festival 2009. Lou, our producer travelled to experience the festival. It was quite a journey :)

The team:
Joeri Burggraaf & Wouter Kan as our young and older Jacob
Chantal Demming as the their mother
Tal Mor - co-director
Lou Hamburger - the producer
Laurens Kingma - camera operator
Joshua Menco & Ilias Panaritis - sound

Music from Ludovico Einaudi and Philip Glass

Rachel Oomens

altin@mac.com — 2009-06-15T00:00:08+02:00

Rachel is a beautiful dancer, a member of the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam.
This video was a try out for this video style. It was filmed in one of the ballet studios with minimal light. Actually, one light only :)
Enjoy!