An audience favorite at the Mill Valley Film Festival, this fascinating documentary celebrates the life and career of Anna Halprin, the American dance pioneer who has helped redefine our notion of modern art with her belief in dance's power to teach, heal and transform at all stages of life. Halprin began her professional career in New York, but when her husband, world-renowned architect Lawrence Halprin, moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, she accompanied him and proceeded to blaze her own trail away from the East Coast art establishment. Breath Made Visible traces her seven-decade-long career, combining archival footage and interviews with contemporaries such as Merce Cunningham, longtime collaborators John Graham and A.A. Leath, her husband Lawrence and their daughters Daria Halprin and Rana Halprin. Swiss filmmaker Ruedi Gerber shows Anna Halprin still active, creating work on her forested outdoor stage in Marin County, and as she nears the age of 90, remaining an indefatigable, inspirational and altogether engaging personality. (US/Switzerland 2009) 80 min. (photo: Kent Reno)
An audience favorite at the Mill Valley Film Festival, this fascinating documentary celebrates the life and career of Anna Halprin, the American dance pioneer who has helped redefine our notion of modern art with her belief in dance's power to teach, heal and transform at all stages of life. Halprin began her professional career in New York, but when her husband, world-renowned architect Lawrence Halprin, moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, she accompanied him and proceeded to blaze her own trail away from the East Coast art establishment. Breath Made Visible traces her seven-decade-long career, combining archival footage and interviews with contemporaries such as Merce Cunningham, longtime collaborators John Graham and A.A. Leath, her husband Lawrence and their daughters Daria Halprin and Rana Halprin. Swiss filmmaker Ruedi Gerber shows Anna Halprin still active, creating work on her forested outdoor stage in Marin County, and as she nears the age of 90, remaining an indefatigable, inspirational and altogether engaging personality. (US/Switzerland 2009) 80 min. (photo: Kent Reno)