CLEAR CREEK

A dust storm, a shoot out and endless horizons. Two women dance through iconic western images and into something new: a moving portrait of home, land and memory as illuminated by the voices of a rural Wyoming community.

Ellen Smith Ahern is a dance artist and first-time filmmaker who explores the intersections of movement, storytelling and nature. She has worked closely with dance companies in the northeastern US and in Mexico, performing and teaching around the world. Ellen also practices social work, organizing with communities in northern New England for food justice and racial equity.

Ellen collaborates with Kate Elias, fellow dancer, filmmaker and social worker, and filmmaker, Tori Lawrence. Their film, Clear Creek, pairs women’s dancing bodies with the landscape and voices of a rural Wyoming community to create a moving portrait of human experience in relationship to the earth. Clear Creek has received support from Dance Films Association, New England Foundation for the Arts, Ucross Foundation and Coginchaug Valley Education Foundation.