Becoming Giulia

Director: Laura Kaehr

2022 / 103min / DCP

Giulia Tonelli, principal dancer at the Zurich Opera House, returns from maternity leave. She has to fight to find her place and a new balance, between the competitive and extremely demanding world of an elite ballet company and her new family life. The documentary is an unprecedented immersion in the microcosm of a great opera house from 2019-2021, an intimate and committed look at the journey of a woman who reclaims her own body and herself to be back on stage.

Post-screening panel discussion with writer-director Laura Kaehr, Siobhan Burke, Marina Harss, and Nicole Duffy, moderated by Kyle Bukhari, Thursday, November 14th

Laura Kaehr – Swiss filmmaker, writer and former dancer. She co-founded SWAN (Swiss Women’s Audiovisual Network) and is currently developing two new film projects, including Hugo in the Sky, a documentary about masculinity that also explores the world of ballet through Paris Opera’s star dancer Hugo Marchand.

Siobhan Burke – Dance critic and writer for The New York Times and Dance Magazine. A former dancer, she’s written for Artforum, The Village Voice, and teaches at Barnard College.

Marina Harss – Dance writer whose work has been featured in The New York Times and The New Yorker. She recently published a biography on choreographer Alexei Ratmansky.

Nicole Duffy – Dance director and educator, former Joffrey Ballet dancer, and repetiteur for the Gerald Arpino Foundation. She teaches at Barnard College and advises Ballet Hispánico.

Kyle Bukhari – Arts researcher, curator, and director at Columbia University with a dance background at The Joffrey and Zurich Ballet. He has choreographed internationally, including work showcased at the Whitney Museum, and is a former Fulbright Fellow in Dance.

With the support of the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York and Swiss Films