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Plays in Shorts Program: Between Us
Saturday, June 13
11:15 AM - 12:45 PM

Regal Gallery Place

701 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20001

for all screenings

A Quiet Storm

Film Language

Japanese

Director

Benjamin Nicolas

Executive Producers

Benjamin Nicolas, Xavier Tera, Janie Chartier

Producer

Rumi Tominaga

Impact Producer

Benjamin Nicolas

Editor

Marie Pier Grignon

Co-Editor

Marie-Pier Grignon

Cinematographer

Alexandre Nour Desjardins

Contact

benjaminetnicolas@gmail.com

Fourteen-year-old Maïto is one of Japan’s most promising krump dancers. Emerging from South Central Los Angeles, krump is a raw, cathartic dance form — the only place where his body is allowed to scream. Off the dance floor, he is quiet. He lives in suburban Tokyo with his mother, Itsuka, and his younger sister, who lives with a disability and requires constant care.

Itsuka raises both children alone. In a culture shaped by conformity, her family fits no mold: a single mother, a disabled daughter, and a son who has made a foreign dance form his native language. She holds it all together without complaint, without applause, without asking to be seen.

A QUIET STORM observes this family with intimacy and patience, moving between the explosive force of krump and the stillness of a mother carrying the weight of her household. A portrait of expression when words are not enough — of rage, beauty, and the quiet strength of those who hold us together.

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Benjamin Nicolas

Director, A Quiet Storm

Benjamin Nicolas is a French-Canadian director based in Montreal, working across documentary, narrative, and commercial film. Trained as an actor in Paris before moving behind the camera, his films center on family, intimacy, and the body as language. His latest documentary short, A QUIET STORM (2025), is on an international festival run, including Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Camerimage, SFFILM Festival, and Kraków Film Festival, and has won Best Documentary and Best Cinematography at the Sapporo International Short Film Festival and Market, as well as the Jury Prize at the Athens International Film and Video Festival. He is represented commercially by Sibling Rivalry, SPY Films, and KIDS Paris, and is currently developing his first narrative feature, AMBER.

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