USA / 2017 / 6mins / Documentary, Portrait / English

Every day Fred Nelson carries a weathered board into Prospect Park. He places it on the ground in a tunnel beneath a pedestrian bridge, laces up his tap shoes and begins to dance. The rhythm of his steps reverberates across the curved walls of the tunnel and radiates out into the world. This is Fred’s daily prayer. In He Who Dances on Wood, we come to see that Fred dances to forge a divine connection with the natural world, to absorb the rhythm in all things and to have “a conversation with God.” And in watching him dance, we join him on his daily journey to find the secret joy and beauty of life in an old piece of wood.

Jessica Beshir

Mexican-Ethiopian filmmaker and actress, Jessica Beshir received her B.A in film studies and literature at UCLA. She directed the short, He Who Dances on Wood (2016), about a man named Fred Nelson, who finds joy in the sound and feeling of tap shoes on wood. The film was selected into Hot Docs, New Black Voices in Cinema and won Best International Documentary Short at Edmonton Film Festival, and the Jury Award at Anchorage International Film Festival in 2017. Her short film, Hairat (2016), about a man who for years has journeyed at night to the outskirts of Harar to bond with his beloved hyenas, was selected into numerous film festivals around the world and premiered at Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for a Short Film Grand Jury Prize. Jessica's 2021 debut feature, Faya Dayi, premiered at Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema - Documentary. The film won Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Documentary Film from the American Society of Cinematographers in 2022. Learn More