A tactile constellation of digital intimacies produced with queer FLINTA* communities across Germany and the UK. Weaving self-recorded footage, freewriting and scribbles, this montage film invites you to scratch and nestle deep under the layers of ‘belonging’.

underneath is us is a collaborative short film created by and with queer FLINTA* (womxn, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans, and agender) artists across Germany and the UK. Over six weeks, dancer-participants exchanged self-recorded footage, sound, and drawings—small “seeds” sparking a digital dialogue on surfaces, tactility, and tenderness. In a world where queer bodies are often either made hyper-visible or erased, the artists intentionally rooted their process in an auto-responsive methodology which centered each participant’s choice to reveal—or conceal—their body and identity. Weaving together participants’ contributions, the project posed the question - what emerges when we engage with our bodies as landscapes of visceral tenderness, in conversation with other visceral-tender landscapes - both human, and more-than-human? The resulting film is a poetic archive of this community dialogue, and dreams into the radical potential of queer intimacy to nurture tendrils which root, connect and nourish.

With thanks to our dancer-participants: J. Beli Friel, Fionnuala Coombs, Robert Oros, Sylvia, zanni CT, Colleyna Feely, Kate MacAlister, Megan Beth Nasse, Sam Hempenstall, Ira Wichert, Pauline Alexandra Michel. Insta: @theyarebeli @gherk_ing @or.rob @saalvia.so @zanni_ct @queer_pole @kissed.by_fire @movingwith.meg @lupitasam @annofoks @iona.moves @adamleechard 

Choreography and artistic direction: Anno Bolender, Iona Hannagan Lewis 
Screendance Advisor: Lauren Heckler @lauren.heckler 
Editor & Sound Designer: Adam Chard 

Using original footage and audio self-recorded by participants With special thanks to The Place, London.