Progressive Touch (2020)
(12 min, HD video)

Progressive Touch depicts three futuristic, absurdist love scenes in which the goal is to “improve” sex by complicating its rhythm and choreography. Sex as dance as comedy. Enacted by three real life couples, the dancers’ every explicit move is synchronized to the propulsive, unpredictable score which borrows elements from progressive rock, trap and math metal.

Originally commissioned by steirischer herbst (Graz, Austria) and co-produced with Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art (Middleburg, the Netherlands) as a three-channel installation, we are exhibiting the work in a single-screen version which premiered in competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020 and subsequently traveled to over 30 film festivals internationally.

Director: Michael Portnoy
Cast: Tizo All, Ilona Bankiraj, Marc Philipp Gabriel, Juan Felipe Amaya González, Astrid Panaken, Deva Schubert
Director of Photography: Darja Pilz
Music: Stefan Maier and Michael Portnoy
Producer, Berlin: Esther Niemeier
Producer, New York: Julia Simpson
Assistant Choreographer: Moss Beynon Juckes
Editor: Camila Mercadal
Focus Puller: David Kizner
Gaffer: Jens Thurmann
Sound recordist: Camilo Garcia Castro
Hair & Make-up Design: Servulo Mendez
Production Design: Ran Chai Bar-zvi and Leonard Mandl

Coproduction by steirischer herbst ’19 (Graz, Austria), Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art (Middelburg) and supported by Chris Fitzpatrick

Download press PDF