Anma1963

ANMA, defined in the film as "the art of releasing of the mind and body," is avant-garde film pioneer Takahiko Iimura's film of an early performance of butoh by one of its originators, Tatsumi Hijikata. In the spirit of butoh's inherent formal mutability, Iimura did not simply film the performance (and thus provide its sole documentation); in what he describes as a "cine-dance," Iimura's on-stage act of filming the performers before an audience made him part of the piece itself. - Tom Fritsche