In this blog post, I will explain why I chose Wim Wenders’ documentary ‘Pina’ and share my thoughts on the film.

Reasons for My Choice

1. While taking a Western dance history class this semester, I happened to see Pina Bausch’s ‘Full Moon’, and it was a revelation. I felt a strong desire to watch that piece again in high-quality video.
2. I have a friend from high school with whom I used to chat about the things we loved while preparing for a play. After failing to get into the university of his choice, he left for Germany and built a life there on his own, driven by his desire to study in Germany. When I met him again recently, he told me he wanted to make documentaries, and eventually, he returned to Germany once more. The fact that both Pina Bausch and Wim Wenders are German added to this sense of personal connection.

Pina Bausch

True to its title, “Pina,” this documentary is about the choreographer Pina Bausch. While biographical documentaries usually feature the subject herself frequently, this film portrays Pina through her works and her dancers.
With her long black hair neatly tied back in a single ponytail and her body wrapped in her signature long-sleeved black garments, this slender choreographer never raises her voice. Whether directing a choreography, reviewing a performance, discussing a piece, or conversing with others, she conveys her thoughts slowly and in a low voice, yet with unwavering clarity.
With such quiet yet undeniable charisma, this choreographer captivated the entire world through dance alone. She influenced various fields, including music, theater, opera, and film, and anyone who has seen her work or spoken with her, even briefly, finds it almost impossible not to love her. Pina Bausch is regarded as a figure who revolutionized choreography and transformed the landscape of the global dance world.
True to her nature—she disliked drawing attention to herself or making a fuss—she passed away suddenly on June 30, 2009, just five days after being diagnosed with cancer, leaving the global performing arts community in deep mourning.

The Artist Trilogy

“Pina” is the film in Wim Wenders’ trilogy of works on music, dance, and photography that focuses on the dancer Pina Bausch.

An Observational and Poetic Documentary

According to classifications of documentary styles, various representational approaches exist. The “observational” style, for example, minimizes camera intervention to follow the subject as it is, a tradition spurred by technological advancements and the possibility of synchronous sound recording.
In contrast, the “poetic” style presents the pictorial and poetic mood of the footage alongside visual rhythm; it is a mode of expression that aesthetically reconstructs the world through a fragmented composition rather than through narrative or the continuity of time and space. Its origins can be traced to early avant-garde documentary, and it focuses on the aesthetic expression of reality rather than reality itself.

Film Structure and Cinematographic Approach

The structure of ‘Pina’ can be roughly divided into short interviews with the dancers who performed Pina Bausch’s works (about 10%) and scenes from the works themselves (about 90%). Wim Wenders remains faithful to “capturing the dancers’ movements accurately,” thoroughly excluding his own intervention and minimizing the camera’s presence.
However, what he captures are pictorial and poetic movements devoid of verbal rhetoric. Because of this, ‘Pina’ is interpreted as an observational yet poetic documentary. Yet Pina’s work offers far too much to be dismissed as mere observation.

What moves them?

There are situations that are simply impossible to put into words. All we can do is offer hints. In fact, words can do no more than evoke something. That is why dance is necessary. — Pina Bausch
The central question of Pina Bausch’s dance is, “What moves them?” The ancient philosophical view that everything is in constant flux and that our bodies react immediately to the universe’s ceaseless movement is connected to the origins of dance. Pina’s work focuses on things that are difficult to express in words—namely, emotions and existential states.
The stage space, like a black void, a massive rock standing tall in the center, and the dancers dancing while drenched by water pouring down like a torrential rain—all of this, combined with the striking music, creates a beautiful scene. The scenes of female dancers dancing in the rain with their wet dresses and hair flying, and male dancers moving dynamically between puddles and the rock, are truly overwhelming.
Pina Bausch explores profound themes of human existence—such as love and desire, anxiety and fear, loss and loneliness, sorrow and anguish, violence and destruction—through a free-form style devoid of a fixed structure.