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Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer

Runtime:
80 min.
Year of Production:
2015
Country:
USA
Director:
Production Company:
Jack Walsh LLC
Berlinale Section:
Panorama
Berlinale Category:
Documentary Film

In 1966, Yvonne Rainer changed the world of modern dance with her performance ‘Trio A’ by
analysing the repertoire of human movement in a radically unspectacular way. Influenced by Merce
Cunningham and John Cage, she developed socio-political choreographies in which she explored on
stage everyday movements in a way that deliberately thwarted audience expectations. Determined
not to appear biddable, she began experimenting with film – applying to the new medium the same
revolutionary impetus that was to be found in her body work. At the age of fifty-six she came out as a
lesbian, and in 1997 she won the Teddy Award with MURDER and murder.Making abundant use of
film excerpts, archive footage and reinterpretations of Rainer’s choreographies, director Jack Walsh
succeeds in illustrating the artistic development of an unswerving yet likeable avant-gardist – from the
1950s to the present day. Complementing Rainer’s own recollections are contributions from dance
experts and fellow-travellers such as Carolee Schneeman and B. Ruby Rich. Today, aged 80, she is
still working on the stage, after Mikhail Baryshnikov persuaded her to make a belated comeback as a
choreographer in the year 2000.

BIOGRAFIE Jack Walsh

Born in Philadelphia, USA in 1954, he studied English literature at the city’s Temple University and then film at San Francisco State University. He currently works as a commissioning editor, producer and director for public broadcasters. As executive producer at KQED San Francisco he was responsible for an entire series of time-slots including Independent View and Season by Season as well as for the documentary AND THEN ONE NIGHT: THE MAKING OF DEAD MAN WALKING (directed by Linda Schaller). He has won numerous Emmys and Golden Gate Awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

FILMOGRAFIE Jack Walsh (selection)

2015 Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer  2004 The Lost Generation  1995 The Second Coming  1993 Dear Rock  1987 Present Tense  1985 Working Class Cronicle  1984 Basic Training  1983 Beachwalk 

Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer IMDb
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