An ode to the extraordinary Nancy Diuguid, whose life was one of grace, both in the living and leaving of it.
Dance Me to The End of Time is a deeply personal film about love in the face of death. Award-winning filmmaker Melanie Chait documented the last four years of her life partner, London theatre director Nancy Diuguid’s life, as she fought breast cancer. Woven into Nancy’s personal story are insights from US scientist and ecologist Rachel Carson, whose seminal book, ‘Silent Spring’ exposed the health danger of pesticides as far back as 1962. Nancy grew up on a tobacco farm in Kentucky in the USA, where small planes regularly sprayed their farms with pesticides. Dance Me to The End of Time powerfully explores the impact of pesticides, not only on the environment but also on the human body by journeying with Nancy as she navigates her cancer treatment and the tremendous love that is shared in doing so. It pays tribute to Nancy, a visionary director and actor who used the creative arts and her own lesbian identity as a lifelong campaign for justice and healing, covering gay and women’s movement issues from the 70s as well as exploring Rachel Carson’s remarkable legacy. The feature documentary is not an extended meditation of death, but a celebration of an energised and involved life.
Dance Me to The End of Time has had a successful Festival run after premiering at The Encounters Film Festival of South Africa. It was an Award Winner at the Toronto International Women’s Film Festival, won Best Editing at the Women In Festival in Zurich, and most recently Best Documentary and Best of the Fest at the Cinema Systers Film Festival in the USA.
About the Biography Director
Dr Melanie Chait is an internationally recognized social justice documentarian who filmed in many countries for UK television before returning to SA post-democracy, much of her work focused on LGBT+ issues. Wanting to provide opportunities for young people unable to afford film training, Melanie founded the multi-award-winning Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking for unemployed youth. Recently her ground-breaking film ‘Veronica 4 Rose’ (1982), was screened at the BFI for Channel 4’s 40th anniversary to celebrate their flagship programming and at the Washington Art Gallery under the Thatcherism and Homophobia banner. A former Fulbright Scholar, Melanie received her doctorate from Oxford University in identity politics and independence movements.
Dance Me to the End of Time (SA 2021, 80 mins) is only showing at the Cinema Museum, London on 15 June. Tickets can be booked here: bit.ly/3nWwSi3
