Our Circle in the Storm
- Knowbox dance
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
kNOwBOX dance Film Festival 2026
Official Selection Film Spotlight
Our Circle in the Storm (2025)
Directed by Ray Jacobs
📍 United Kingdom ⏱ 9 minutes 41 seconds
"The sense of comfort we find in a circular environment, where everything feels predictable and we always know what comes next. That’s what home is all about, a safe place.
This is a thought-provoking piece and that’s what we need right now. Artists as amplifiers. Thank you for such top-notch work."
Aneliz Cazares, NBFF 2026 Volunteer Juror
Trailer
Film Description
Our Circle in the Storm is an nine-minute dance film by Arty Party, featuring a cast of dancers with and without disabilities. It explores what it means to be together while the world changes all around us. The work reflects on the importance of togetherness and connection in a time of climate change, and the thin veil between our comfort inside and the changing world beyond. It draws attention to the vulnerability of people with disabilities during a climate crisis.
Synopsis
A group of climate refugees have made a home of an abandoned house. They live, cook, laugh, cry, eat, dance and rest together, feeling like a family inside, while feeling vulnerable to the hostile climate outside.
A wild storm arrives, and one member of the group must leave. Meanwhile, daily life must carry on.
Meet The Makers
Coming soon!
What do you hope to communicate with our audience through your work?
The importance of togetherness and community in these times when so much is changing all around us.
Our theme this year is "The Light We Move Toward: When the World Darkens, We Dance". This year’s theme explores how movement becomes a pathway toward light: across borders, across time, and across lived experience.
How do you think your film relates to this theme?
The film focuses on the importance of connection, community and care during climate crisis. The film wishes to give people with disabilities a voice expressing their vulnerability strength and potential leadership in the climate change movement.
Biographies
Ray Jacobs is a director of film and theatre based in the UK. He creates imaginative and powerful works with a wide variety of companies, in particular collaborating with disabled artists.
Rays background is in dance and performance, trauma from a hereditary heart condition in his thirties led him to begin creating work away from the stage and create visual stories on film.
Recent multi award winning short films include ‘The Sea Reminds Me’ , ‘Bastion’ ,’Four Solos in the Wild’, ‘A Safe Place toy Rest’ , ‘Your Rocky Spine’ and ‘Secret Lives ‘a series of films based on stories from American Fantasy author Jeff Vandermeer.
Show of work incorporating – Bastion, The Sea Reminds Me, Four Solos in the Wild, Tate Modern, London, March 2017.
2019 - Outstanding contribution to Cinema Award - Oska Bright Film Festival
Director Statement
‘I aim in my work to create movement and image which steps quietly into the human heart’.
Film Credits
Our Circle in the Storm - An Arty Party Production
Directed by Ray Jacobs
Producer Sabrina Scollan
Performed by Eve Washington, Graham Busby, Georgie Dawson,
Robert Hemming, Mary Eddowes, Mervyn Bradley, Beth Gardiner,
Taro Taphouse Eddowes, Chander van Daatselaar
Director of Photography and Editor Calum Barre
Movement Director Siobhan Hayes
Art Director and Costume Heidi Luker
Artwork Wren Miller
Music ‘Mosaic’ ‘Cascade’, and ’Fracture’ performed & written by Origamibiro courtesy of Denovali Records
Script by Ray Jacobs
Narrated by Ceri Owen Jones and Elsa Davies
Festival Screenings/Awards
Oska Bright Film Festival.UK - Best Performance
Queens Work Film Festival USA - Best Ensemble Performance
Wild Dogs Screen Dance Film Festival, Canada- 2nd Place Best Short Film
Bridges international Film Festival Greece - Best Music Dance Film
Bridge of Peace Film Festival, Paris - Best Short Film
Big Syn Film Festival, London UK - Best Disabled Filmmakers
Wine Dark Film Festival UK - Best Costume Design
RODI International film Festival, Greece - 2nd Place Best Film
Together Film Festival, UK - Best Dance Film
Novella Film Festival UK - Best Environmental Film
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