Keith Glassman’s contemporary dance documentary in Micheaux Film Festival

In the seventh edition of the Micheaux Film Festival, modern dance choreographer/filmmaker Keith Glassman’s award-winning feature documentary “Lives Beyond Motion” will be screened in Auditorium 5 of the Culver Theater on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, at 4:30 p.m.

The cinematic event is named after its founder, the early 20th-century African American filmmaker and author Oscar Micheaux. It includes 36 world premieres, 100+ LA premieres, 15 panels and special events, and four days of screenings, conversations and community at the Culver Theater and surrounding venues.

“Lives Beyond Motion,” which was named the Best Feature Documentary at last February’s Dance Camera West Film Festival, has been nominated for Outstanding Documentary, Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Editing at this week’s screening. The film has been described in promotional materials as “a love letter to every creative across the arts.”

Its star-studded cast includes Bill T. Jones, Lar Lubovitch, Alvin Ailey’s Matthew Rushing, David Rousseve, Kyle Abraham, Donald Byrd and 25 other intergenerational artists who have devoted their lives to concert dance. They discuss the trials and tribulations of pursuing this career path in the United States – “triumphs and struggles to transcend economic, racial and sexual marginalization in their uncompromising quest to find individual expression, joy in the art of movement and what it takes to make a life in the arts.”

Though this is Glassman’s debut feature film, he has spent a lifetime in the modern dance communities of New York and Los Angeles. Collaborating composer/producer The Angel has scored both feature and short films, TV series and a host of independent and studio-produced projects. Editor and media artist Douglas Thompson has worked with choreographer Heidi Duckler and on recent documentaries about Voodoo, Gypsy (Roma) music and beefcake photographer James Bidgood.

–Benn Widdey, Culture Spot LA

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