WHO SITS BESIDE US IN THE BATH, 11min., USA, Dance
Directed by Dana Sokolowski
A surreal bedtime story about trust, safety, and protection after the death of a parent.

Director Biography - Dana Sokolowski

Dana Sokolowski is a writer, filmmaker, and dancer/choreographer based in Atlanta, GA. Her purpose is to create dream worlds of safety and belonging, bringing people together, to tears, and to their feet. Dana’s choreography blends Hip-Hop and Contemporary styles with global influences. Her goal is to merge the innovation, movement, and world-making of dance film with surrealist narrative work that defies genre to bring dance as a language to the commercial screen.

As a filmmaker, she has produced films across the world for Fortune 500 companies at a top creative agency. Her films have launched non-profits, procuring $2 million in funding and starting movements for social change. As a writer, her fiction and poetry is respected by Sir Salman Rushdie and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Jericho Brown whom she worked with on her poetry collection “Ground.” In addition to collaborations with other dancers and videographers for “Human” and “The Wilhelm Scream,” she has released two dance films from her poems of the same name: “The Third Law” and “Selves.” Her ensemble stage performances “The Time Is Now” and “It’s Time” have toured in 1,000 capacity venues in Atlanta and Charlotte with RAW Artists. She’s trained with industry moguls Frank Gatson, Chris Grant, Kiki Ely, Dave Scott and more as a member of Anthony Burrell Company A and ATLA Connect Cycle V under Kiki Ely and Sakinah LeStage. Dana received her Bachelors in Creative Writing/English and Film Studies from Emory University in 2015, graduating Magna Cum Laude. You can view her work at www.danasoko.com.

Director Statement
My mother became suddenly ill and died in 2019. As an artist who investigated our relationship with mind and body, I now barter with its ancestral and spiritual elements. “Who sits beside us in the bath” is a surreal bedtime story about trust, safety, and protection after the death of a parent. Giving body to the entities we speak to when we’re alone—ourselves, our shadows, our gods, our ancestors—the film asks: Who is protecting us? What are we protecting ourselves from? Who do I trust? And who, if any, should I fear? With your support, I hope for this film to be a comfort to anyone struggling with grief and mental and spiritual health in the wake of loss.