Gingerella (RockaFela) (2017)

Shot in the Brazilian Amazon, Iceland, Hungary and UK before Brexit, Trump and Bolsonaro, Gingerella (RockaFela) explores the meaning of freewill, dance and synchronization in the age of populism. Blending documentary, neuroscience and fairy tale, it weaves together thirteen, universal Cinderella myths with the contemporary story of dancer Gingerella and her search to rediscover the ability to dance, all underscored by a real-time experiment with the Amazonia Jazz band. In a collaboration with neuroscientist, Professor Chris Frith (UCL), Gingerella takes place against a backdrop of processions, nature, the military and George Soros', Central European University in Hungary, recently threatened with closure by the right wing government. In an age of proximity to machines, the world of modern neuroscience is Gingerella's map and her guides two of its foremost practitioners as we journey through the urban Amazon and Europe, exploring how we move and what it is to be close to each other. Today, with arduous migrations and communities struggling to cooperate, Gingerella's journey reveals some startling, cognitive truths about the body politic - and why we dance together.