Abbi Stickels

The rough-and-tumble world of politics is brought to visceral life in a dance film that explores the performed self, social masks and whether there is an ‘authentic’ self beneath them. Inspired by ‘The Green Table’ (Kurt Jooss) and set in a smoky, hyper-masculine gentleman’s club; dancers move into and out of tableaux; they gesture emphatically; they fight and they fall as they argue and ultimately refuse to budge. A woman occasionally appears at the edge of frame, dancing soulfully in the margins. But no matter how hard she tries, she cannot break in or through. Masks All the Way Down epitomizes microbudget filmmaking with a budget totaling less than one thousand USD. The film was shot in a historic parlor on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. All of the performers were undergraduate-level students from the Dance Department. The film demonstrates that despite modest means, artistic devotion and resourcefulness can produce high-quality results.