CAM is pleased to partner with the annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival to present short films that explore the world of contemporary art through a cinematic lens. This event is free and open to the public and includes complimentary popcorn and refreshments for purchase. Guests are welcome to bring dinner to enjoy during the movie. Doors open at 7:00 pm.

This documentary short film program celebrates the powerful meeting point of the mediums of film and dance. The featured filmmakers’s works resonate with the choreographed forms in the St. Louis-born artist Charles Atlas’s animation Painting by Numbers, on view on CAM’s facade Street Views. Atlas is a celebrated pioneer in the development of “media-dance,” a genre in which original performance work is created directly for the camera. 

Mr. Troy (2024), directed by Ken Gregory. 6 minutes.

• This documentary explores the remarkable journey of Troy D. Brown, a world-renowned ballet dancer whose exceptional talent and unwavering dedication to his art have transcended barriers of race and prejudice. The film showcases Troy’s extraordinary performances, illustrating how his unique style and grace captivated audiences worldwide. 

Ten Times Better (2024), directed by George Lee. 30 minutes.

• Driven by his refugee mother to be “ten times better” in white America, George Lee is the quintessential invisible immigrant with an extraordinary past. The 88-year-old blackjack dealer in Vegas, who grew up in Shanghai studying ballet with Russian emigres, was handpicked by George Balanchine to originate the Chinese dance in the choreographer’s 1954 premiere of The Nutcracker and persuaded by Gene Kelly to try Broadway in the original Flower Drum Song—pioneering tales of an early AAPI dancer who no one knows. Until now.

We Ride for Her (2024), directed by Prairie Rose Seminole and Katrina Sorrentino. 18 minutes.

• An Indigenous women’s motorcycle group rides to end the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women while a member of their community searches for her missing sister and tries to heal her shattered family. The film follows movements of the riders as well as moments of Native cultural expression including dance.