Butte (2007)

Poetic and sensual, Butte unfolds over the course of a day, marking the progression of time at four key points – sunrise, mid-day, late afternoon, and sundown. Filmed on the Blood Reserve in the plains and ancestral grounds of Southern Alberta, the camera instinctively accentuates dancer-choreographer Byron Chief-Moon’s deep connection to the land. The film captures images of nature and the connectiveness with the land – undulating waves of wild grass, the slow passage of clouds, pastoral, woodland thicket, and streams. The body as landscape is the central image; where the flesh, bone and muscle become synonymous with the land.

Produced and Directed by: Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer
Co-production by: Bravo!FACT
Choreographer-Dancer: Byron Chief-Moon
Director of Photography: Michael Wees
Editor: Dexter X
Original Music: Nicolas Basque
Broadcaster: Bravo!/CTV, APTN

Produced with the support of: Bravo!FACT

Canada/2006/beta-cam & 16mm/colour/5:42 min.
Available on DVD, BTC SP, Digital BTC

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(A) rich seam of work dealing with cross-cultural reference points… Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer’s Butte (2006) contrasted an exhilarating, aerial camera journey with the earth-bound and ritualised step-based movement vocabulary characteristic of Native American culture, locating a single human figure within expansive elemental surroundings, lit by firelight and the flame-red setting of evening sun.

/ Chirstinn Whyte, realtime 81, 2007 /

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Absolutely beautiful…

/ Isa Tousignant, Hour /

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With vast wide shots and landscapes in full view, Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer’s Butte reminds us that before man, was land. The elegant body of choreographer and dancer Byron Chief-Moon sweeps across the prairies. His 20th century body communicates to us through movement and through his warrior face: Queerly we are nothing new, clearly we queers have always existed.

/ Ted Kerr, “white buffalo’s return to emerald island” /