IMPRESSIONS: Stéphane Carrel's "Resilient Man" Opens Dance on Camera Festival 2025

WHAT: RESILIENT MAN - Opening Night Feature at Dance on Camera Festival 2025  

WHERE: Symphony Space

WHEN: February 21, 2025
WHO: Director/Screenwriter: Stéphane Carrel | Dancers: Steven McRae, Sarah Lamb, Anna Rose O’Sullivan | Producers: Julia Fangeaud, Guillaume Roy, Gabriel Chabannier, Julien Loeffler, Meredith Coral, James Kermack | Editor: Florence Maunier | Music: Sylvain Millepied

MORE INFO & TICKETS: CLICK HERE

Stéphane Carrel’s documentary RESILIENT MAN (2024, 91’) has its US Premiere this Friday as it opens the 2025 Dance On Camera Festival (DOCF) at Symphony Space on February 21, 2025. The venue replaces the DOCF home of almost thirty years, the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center. Royal Ballet principal dancer Steven McRae is the lovable, resilient man we follow in his dogged efforts to return to the stage after rupturing his Achilles tendon.

Still from "Resilient Man" Photo © Stéphane Carrel
 

About 15 minutes into the film, Elizabeth Harrod, a dancer formerly with the Royal Ballet of London, barely manages to answer her husband, McRae, sitting on their couch, when he asks whether she misses the stage, now that she is a mother of three. Suddenly, we see her silently searching McRae’s face, while her confession of mixed self-affirmation and regret continues in a voice-over.  

Carrel interjects his personal style as a director in other subtle ways. For example, he often takes McRae’s point of view, setting the camera at height of the dancer’s nose, as he  checks out the alignment of his thighs and feet in plié. His stills of McRae lying on the floor make you pause and consider just what McRae is experiencing. Quite apart from the sensational approach a Hollywood director might take — milking every moment of despair and triumph —Carrel makes us feel the drag of time. We see the lonely patience required, the equipment used in rehabilitation, and the caring of coaches, even his surgeon! While editor Florence Maunier matches the director’s restraint, the film’s score by Sylvain Millepied can be overwrought.

After watching McRae stoically train, play with his kids, commune with his wife, and commute to Covent Garden, the footage of him rehearsing duets from Romeo & Juliet makes you gasp at his artistry. Certainly, the film’s most memorable scenes include thisrehearsal footage, along with archival films of McRae dancing with irrepressible joy at age seven in Sydney, Australia, and competing for the Prix de Lausanne at age 17, just before the invitation to go to the Royal Ballet. McRae has a rare quality of élan, precision, and bravura.

Still from "Resilient Man" Photo © Stéphane Carrel

At one point, before a performance, McRae stands alone on stage in his “regular Joe” clothes. His voice-over says, “I don’t want to stand there feeling traumatized by the space,” while his eyes reveal a mix of fear and horror. We understand in that moment what courage it took to risk a return to the performing arena, and how vulnerable he is. After his first rehearsal with the company, he texts, “anything is possible.” The relief and pure happiness we see in McRae’s eyes after his fantastic performance are unforgettable.

The 53rd edition of the Dance On Camera Festival from February 21 to 24, 2025 features 28 films spanning 13 countries. Of these 16 are directed by women, and four come from first-time filmmakers. DOCF co-curators Shawn Bible, Michael Trusnovec, and Cara Hagan honor choreographer, dancer, and 2017 Kennedy Center Honoree Carmen de Lavallade with a re-screening of the documentary CARMEN & GEOFFREY, along with Lester Horton’s short CARIBBEAN NIGHTS, filmed on March 19, 1953, for the unfinished feature film 3-D FOLLIES, featuring de Lavallade and James Truitte.

Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder from the documentary CARMEN & GEOFFREY. Photo © Dance On Camera Festival