Pina

Wim Wenders's Pina (2011) earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary and became one of the first art-house films to make genuinely expressive use of 3-D. Conceived as a collaboration with the legendary choreographer Pina Bausch, it was transformed into an elegy when Bausch died unexpectedly days before shooting was to begin.

Rather than a conventional biography, Wenders builds the film from performances of Bausch's signature works — Café Müller, The Rite of Spring, Kontakthof — staged both on stage and in striking real locations around the city of Wuppertal, where her company was based. Between the dances, her performers offer brief, often wordless testimonies to her influence. The stereoscopic depth gives the choreography a sculptural presence, drawing the viewer into the space of movement as flat cinema rarely can.

Critics hailed it as a breakthrough in how dance could be captured on film and as a moving memorial to a singular artist. Beautiful, grief-struck and formally innovative, Pina introduced Bausch's revolutionary Tanztheater to audiences far beyond the dance world. It stands as both a landmark of the 3-D era and a heartfelt act of homage from one major German artist to another. It introduced Bausch's revolutionary Tanztheater to audiences far beyond the dance world, and stands as both a landmark of the 3-D era and a heartfelt act of homage between two major German artists.