It feels perfectly natural to see Bobbi Jene Smith perform naked, grinding on a sandbag in front of an audience in the documentary Bobbi Jene, directed by Elvira Lind, now screening at Tribeca. That’s because there’s nothing risqué about Bobbi Jene’s dance exploration of female sexuality. Naked, in the film is fresh, honest, unselfconscious, and raw, and we can extend that definition to her aesthetic, neither full of artifice nor commercially motivated. We meet her as she explains to Ohad Naharin, director of the prestigious Batsheva Dance Company based in Tel Aviv, why after ten years of success, she is leaving the company. Bobbi Jene was filmed dancing in Mr. Gaga, Tomer Heymann’s documentary about Batsheva, but now in Bobbi Jene, this dancer and choreographer is star of a portrait on her own.
On a recent afternoon, I had a chance to speak to Bobbi Jene and film editorAdam Nielsen at the Smyth. I caught up with filmmaker Elvira Lind on the phone. Nine days past her due date for the baby she was having with actor Oscar Isaac,she decided wisely not to venture out. Oscar, for his part, left his own premiere of The Promise, a powerful love story set in the historic moment of the Armenian genocide, at Shun Lee a few days earlier, to be by her side. Several days later, as Bobbi Jene premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, everyone was still waiting.
When asked what she looks for in a project, Elvira Lind replied, “Filmmaking is a journey. When I look for a project, I know it will be a collaboration over a long period of time. I like to tell the story of a person as they live their lives. Bobbi Jene was going through important moments in her life; she’s inspiring, she has an incredible was of communicating.
As to the challenges in making Bobbi Jene, Lind said: “I am a Danish person in America. I found it hard to talk about women’s sexuality. But most challenging: as a filmmaker, you have to be invisible so much of the time. You develop a friendship and you have to be there and not there at the same time.”
Editor Adam Nielsen observed: “I’ve done al lot of documentaries that are character driven. This is my second working with Elvira Lind. When you plow through so many hours of an individual you see the good bits and the bad. What was so special about Bobbi was that she was so honest, she was just being herself; editing was not like cutting away her bad side. When you see Bobbi perform, it is like hearing jazz; it just goes in another direction; her new performances are never the same, adding new dimension, like practicing but doing it in front of an audience. My editing was more like protecting her.”
Here is an excerpt of my interview with Bobbi Jene:
Bobbi Jene, How did you and Elvira meet?
I went to school with Oscar Isaac at Julliard. I met Elvira through him.
Why did you want to dance with Batsheva?
I met Ohad Naharin in my third year at Julliard. It was my dream to dance with Batsheva, after I first saw them my freshman year. I had never seen women dance like that. They had so much power and sensuality at the same time. I did not know that was allowed. I said, I want to dance like that.
You are so exposed in Bobbi Jene, for example, dancing naked with a sandbag. Was that the hardest part of making this film?
In my performance, my concentration is so intense, I am not thinking about the audience. Wanting to hide when you want to hide when things get intimate, that was hardest for me; for Elvira, that’s when she really gets started. After my performance of “Decadence,” when I go into the dressing room, I did not think that Elvira would make it. I was going to cry and I did not want anyone to see me; I did not want anyone to feel bad for me. I ran as fast as I could to the dressing room to get away, like an animal, when they get injured. She snuck in, and caught it somehow. I cherish Elvira so much as an artist. As a choreographer, I would want people to go to those darkest places. I see her as the artist she is.
The movie ends with your relationship with Or Schraiber in uncertainty. Bring me up to date. Are you still together? And what are your plans now?
Or is moving to New York in August. He was accepted to acting school. I will teach gaga. I will always be connected to Ohad, and I have three new works. Performance is my prayer, my form of sending hope.
A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.