Cari Ann Shim Sham*’s Documentary About Tap-Dancing on Sand1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThat’s L.A. tap dancer Kenji Igus, on the right, watching as his father, Darrow, releases a fistful of sand. Darrow is readying the stage for a “sand dance,” a rare style of tap dancing in which the dancer scrapes the gritty grains to extract whooshing and shussing sounds with the feet, rather than the usual clicking and clacking.
The image is from the award-winning, 10-minute documentary film Sand, made by Cari Ann Shim Sham*. Sand, which beautifully captures the personal and artistic interactions of this father and son, will be screened as part of the International Documentary Association’s DocuWeeks festival (which runs August 19-25 at Laemmle Sunset 5).
You might think there’d only be one Cari Ann Shim Sham*. But — no! — as Cari Ann was about to officially make Shim Sham her professional name, she found that another one existed. That’s when she added the asterisk. Don’t forget the asterisk.
A teacher, musician, dancer, choreographer, film editor, director of photography, experimental filmmaker and theater-artist, Cari Ann has had a packed summer. It began with a Sand screening at the Cannes Film Festival (in the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase). After that came Dance Camera West, for which she helps make movie selections.
