Marquee TV’s Summer Shorts Festival returns this August with a free, month-long series of short films available for global audiences. The arts streaming site will share “shorts” from leading arts organisations and festivals across dance, theatre and music, bringing together new and established talent from around the world. Films featured in the festival include submissions from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Scottish Ballet, Manchester Camerata, Stuttgart’s Gauthier Dance Company, San Francisco Dance Film Festival and Australia’s Inspired Dance Film Festival, among others.

The year’s festival slate features a topical focus on how the arts help people express their identities—From Manchester Camerata’s film about early-onset dementia, to Akil McKenzie’s Historians from San Francisco Dance Film Festival about being a young, Black man grow in the US, to disabled dance artist Annie Edward’s dance film as part of Scottish Ballet’s The Shimmering Extraordinary series. A number of the short films also focus on the LGBTQ+ community, with Max Sachar’s Pointe A2B featuring a male-male pas de deux en pointe and Manchester Camerata’s Untold – Caroline exploring the orchestra leader’s journey to acceptance as a gay, Christian woman.

Susannah Simons, Director of Partnerships and lead curator of the Summer Shorts Festival at Marquee TV, said: “We were overwhelmed by the sheer number and quality of short films we received this year and choosing just 30 was a challenge. Telling a story in a short amount of time is a real skill and it is wonderful to see how many artists have responded to the challenge is such an exciting and creative way. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have.”

Artist, film maker, and Head of US Content Partnerships at Marquee TV Ryan McKinny, said: “Most of us aren’t traveling to San Francisco, Sydney, and Stuttgart this summer, but we can all experience the creative outputs of some of those cities’ most exciting contemporary artists. Marquee TV is a creative connector and a the hub for discovery that meets audiences where they are, wherever they are. Summer Shorts is a wonderful entry point for exploration.”

San Francisco Dance Film Festival: Evidence of it all, a short film with written by Pulitzer-winning librettist Royce Vavrek, narrated by Golden Globe-winning actress Rosamund Pike, and choreographed by Drew Jacoby (Nederlands Dans Theater, Royal Ballet of Flanders). Also by San Francisco Dance Company is Fly me to the moon, a film celebrating COL Gail Seymour “The Candy Bomber,” a senior officer and command pilot in the US Air Force who gained fame for dropping candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1949.

Gauthier Dance Company – Stuttgart: A selection of films from The Dying Swans Project, featuring eight solos by eight different choreographers. The full series features 17 films and was nominated for a Rose D’or Cannes award in 2021.

Cathy Marston: Drift is a short film featuring choreographer Cathy Marston improvising on the banks of the River Aare in Bern, Switzerland. Directed by Felix von Muralt with music written by Philip Feeney.

Scottish Ballet: A mini-series of six short dance films created by Emmy-nominated director Fx Goby, focusing on the stories of six dancers including drag artist Nikita, designer and choreographer Saul Nash and disabled dance artist Annie Edwards. Each video focusses on the themes of acceptance, identity and respect, looking at how the individuals used dance to overcome obstacles.

Manchester Camerata: Three films from Manchester Camerata’s powerful Untold series, each telling the story of an individual through music. Julie Hesmondhalgh narrates Untold: Keith, telling the story of how music helped Keith, a local Wigan-based man, with his early-onset dementia. Untold: Caroline looks at the story of Caroline Pether, leader of the Manchester Camerata, talking about her own journey to acceptance as a gay, Christian woman, featuring spoken word by poet laureate of Scotland Jackie Kay. Untold: Gábor tells the personal story of the Camerata’s Music Director Gábor Takács-Nagy, where he reflects on the highs and lows, challenges and great achievements of his career to date.

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: Following the popularity of the OAE’s previous Summer Shorts videos including Dido’s Lament, the Orchestra is back with two exclusive videos for Marquee featuring Handel mixed with pop. The first will bring Handel’s Thou Shalt Break Them together with the The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony, and the second will mix Handel’s Where’er you walk with music by Finneas.