Biography
Alla Kovgan was born in 1973 in Moscow, where she studied linguistics and information science until 1996. In 1996 she moved to Boston (USA), where she received her Master's degree in Education. Since then she has been living and working alternately in Boston and St. Petersburg (Russia). In 1999 she founded the Kinodance Company in Boston together with the choreographer and dancer Alissa Cardone and the visual artist Dedalus Wainwright. With this company she realized multimedia stage shows, installations and films. In 2000, together with filmmaker Jeff Daniel Silva, she founded the non-profit organization Balagan Film Series, which regularly organize thematic film events with underground and experimental films. In St. Petersburg, Kovgan has been the programmer of the dance film festival Kinodance since 2000.
In her own films, Kovgan has often been dealing with dance and choreography. In her feature film debut "Movement (R)evolution Africa" (US 2007) she portrayed nine African choreographers. Her medium-length documentary film "Nora" (GB/US 2008, co-directed by David Hinton), about the Zimbabwe-born choreographer Nora Chipaumire, has been shown at numerous festivals worldwide and has won numerous awards. The 3D short film "Devil's Lungs" (FI 20018) was about accordion music and contemporary dance in Finland. In addition to her work as a filmmaker, Kovgan has curated various dance and avant-garde film series worldwide over the years.
At the Toronto Film Festival 2019 she presented the feature-length 3D documentary "Cunningham", which she had been working on since 2015. In it she traces the life of the pioneering choreographer Merce Cunningham (1919-2009), whose work had a decisive influence on modern dance. This film was also shown at numerous festivals. The German theatrical release took place in December 2019.