The 1995 archive
Ahnen ahnen, fragments de répétition
By Pina Bausch // 1h08
With this inexpensively shot film Pina Bausch gives a glimpse into the day-to-day work of rehearsals. Uncompromising, without a thought for the potential spectators´ viewing habits or the build up of dramatic tension, she works with film – a new medium for her – showing only what interests her.
While Pina Bausch was preparing her film The Plaint of the Empress in 1987, the French, British and German co-producers were waiting for a script. No script: no film. That is how the film industry saw things. The discussion dragged on but eventually the TV stations accepted the idea of shooting the film without a script. Someone had the idea of making a “test film” showing what the results of working in Pina Bausch´s way could be. That´s how this film was born – a documentary on the rehearsals for Ahnen - a piece she was developing at the time. For twenty five years the film stayed in the archives; today it emerges as an extraordinary document. This is how Pina Bausch and her company worked. This is how this work was created, that touched so many people and continues to do so today.
The release of this film was supported by Kunststiftung NRW, Kulturstiftung der Länder, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien and Stadtsparkasse Wuppertal.
