Hunter

Sati Veyrunes and Ryan O'Neill in Hunter, directed by Oona Doherty & Luca Truffarelli

“A dance piece that is rich with ideas and symbolism”

★★★★★ The Reviews Hub

“I am flesh I am flesh,” exclaims Doherty in the poem that opens the film, immediately situating the piece as part of the rippling texture of everyday Belfast: “Amadeus Audio jaguar seat / A moist beautiful beat / Thumps hard / Testosterone and cortisol fuel the grinning mouth / Where girls do fall night air does shout.”

In the final instalment of a series of co-commissions from Fact and Art night, artist and choreographer Oona Doherty translates her movement work Hope Hunt & The Ascension Into Lazarus – the critically acclaimed production, which saw three sold-out performances at The Yard as part of Dance Umbrella Festival 2019 – onto film.

Set in her native home of Belfast, Doherty’s visceral movement and striking aesthetic twins with co-director, Luca Truffarelli’s dark cinematic photography. Conjuring a chilling and unnerving experience, the film twists through explorations of working-class masculinity, urban decay and organised religion, all told from the frenetic point of view of a dancer, imbued with what Doherty calls “joyriding struggle”.

Centred around a car-crash, the metaphor is a powerful and stark compliment to Doherty’s intensely physical movement style. “For the first time I think we’ve achieved the film looking like how it feels for the dancer dancing,” says Doherty, adding “which I think is very tasty.”

Digital Event

Venue: Online
Date: 7 - 31 October 2022

Duration: 37 minutes

Dance Umbrella Festival 2022 Across London & Online
7–31 October

Directed by Oona Doherty & Luca Truffarelli

Cast & Creative +

Cast

Ryan O'Neill
Performer
Sati Veyrunes
Performer

Creative

Oona Doherty
Director & Choreographer
Luca Truffarelli
Co-Director & Cinematographer
Oona Doherty & Ryan O'Neill
Writers

About the Artists +

Oona Doherty

Photo Luca Truffarelli

Oona Doherty has been performing dance-theatre internationally since 2010 with companies including: TRASH (NL), Abattoir Fermé (BE), Veronika Riz (IT), Emma Martin/ United Fall (ROI), Enda Walsh and Landmark Productions (ROI).

Doherty’s ground-breaking choreography has earned her multiple awards and prestigious opportunities both in Ireland and abroad. Her solo work Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus (2015) earnt her Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival Best Performer Award in 2016 and won the Total Theatre Dance Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017. Her first group piece Hard to Be Soft – A Belfast Prayer was voted no.1 UK dance show of 2019 by The Guardian. In 2019 she created Lady Magma: The Birth of a Cult and 2021 saw her first collaboration with (La) Horde, collective at the helm for Ballet Nationale de Marseille (FR).

Oona Doherty was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale Danza in 2021.

Luca Truffarelli

Luca Truffarelli is a freelance photographer and video maker based in Dublin. He graduated in photography in 2011 and started experimenting and challenging himself in the field of visual arts. Over the past few years he has been involved in contemporary dance and theatre works as a photographer/video maker, visual/set and sound designer and artistic collaborator.