BROTHERS
Directed by Max Cookward
The bond between brothers is hard to communicate through language – and for dancer Max Cookward and their brother Lyall, it’s a relationship strengthened by its complexities. In autobiographical film BROTHERS, commissioned by Flux Projects, Max translates the intimate and unconventionally beautiful bond they share, exploring through movement the nuanced emotions that arise from his role as Lyall’s carer.
Overcoming the limitations of verbal communication by engaging through movement, body language, and touch, Max and Lyall have found a new means of connection that transcends language. Serving as a choreographed response to emotions impossible to put into words, expanding their communicative abilities through movement has, in turn, shaped Max’s creative process as a dancer, using the medium as a form of catharsis through which to interpret their experiences.
“Movement is my foremost way of communicating to Lyall, and the world. So much is said, felt, seen and lived in the movement of life. If we can subscribe to this idea, our communicative abilities have the chance to expand and become more universal.”
Shot in rural Yorkshire, close to Max and Lyall’s hometown Leeds, BROTHERS considers what it is to love unconditionally, touching on themes of brotherhood, joy, and the feelings that accompany caring for someone vulnerable. Working with cinematographer Genevieve Reeves, whose own experience as a carer directs her approach behind the camera, the film offers a raw portrait of the authentic intimacy between them, and the strength of a relationship built on trust and intuitive understanding.
September 22, 2023
GEMINI
Coming soon…
Portrait of a Dancer
Max Cookward
Harry Bowley directs a character study of the queer movement artist, reflecting their transformative journey through dance
In its fluidity, and the roles embodied to project deep emotions through performance, movement is a catalyst for growth. For rising dance talent Max Cookward, experiments in movement have run parallel to their own personal journey – a gateway through which they have expanded their understanding of self, via gender-identity, queerness, and the development in movement which facilitates their process.
Trained at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, and currently performing with Andrea Miller in New York, the London-based dance artist reflects on their connection to the physical and means of expression in a short film, directed by Harry Bowley. A glimpse into the artist’s mind, the film follows the curve of Cookward’s trajectory, tracing the freedoms – and at times, limitations – afforded them through their background, leading to the use of dance as a cathartic release, and means of exploring the intricacies of their experience.
“What’s interesting in Max’s journey is that it’s still ongoing – dance is this amazing vehicle that allows them to express themselves in a further way, beyond the restrictions of words or societal norms. It was important for us to show that as a dancer you don’t have to fit into one particular mould.”
Exploring the uninhibitedness of the child self, and subsequent pressures of conformity that stand to be overcome, the film centers Cookward’s manifestation of their internal dialogue through performance. In these transformational movements, their stage presence becomes a reflection of the true inner self, and a rejection of the need to perform and conform in daily life.
A tribute to the London dance scene, and the thriving talent that has emerged from it, Bowley captures Cookward ahead of a global tour with Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show – and, in the film, employs fashion as a signifier of change. Evolving from the traditional leotard, to gender non-conforming pieces, and an extravagant knitwear piece by designer Tim Ryan, the growing dynamism of the wardrobe follows Cookward’s ascension to their raw, unashamed self, escalating to free-flowing fringing in which each movement reflects the process it took to get there, enhanced in slow motion.
January 18, 2023
Why Cant We Live Together?
Coming in 2024…
IN THE CENTRE OF IT ALL, LEVITATING.
