Challenging AIDS through Dance

"There's a rock in my shoe. It's small, but it changes everything. It's hard now to remember when the earth welcomed my feet. There's a rock in my shoe - there's a virus in my blood."  – Alan Stinson, from film

This powerful documentary follows a unique HIV/AIDS dance group in San Francisco led by pioneering dancer Anna Halprin. It shows a group of men with AIDS or HIV-infection using their condition as a resource for creative expression. The video is a collage of seven months of the group's emotionally-charged workshops, culminating in a poignant performance of a work titled "Carry Me Home."

This is a film about creativity and community as healing forces. It captures the brotherhood, the hope, the laughter and the tears of the dancers as they gather weekly to shape a dance of their stories. POSITIVE MOTION shows how dance can be therapeutic to the dancer, whose body becomes a storyteller conveying a new-found expression of health. It demonstrates how this form of theatre and therapy enables individuals alienated from themselves and their community to rediscover both their bodies and their brotherhood.  
(1991, 37 min.)

Other Open Eye Pictures films about Anna Halprin:
» Returning Home
» Embracing Earth

Producer/Director/Camera/Editor
Andrew Abrahams

Co-Producer
USC Center for Visual Anthropology

Best of Show
Dance on Camera Festival

Press & Artistic Jury Awards
Grand Prix de Video Danse (Paris)

Official Selection
American Dance Festival

"...Compelling and new... drew my top rating."
– Ellen Cohn, Village Voice

"Incredibly powerful... a poignant capturing of our humanity and vulnerability. Anyone who seeks to understand the power of the human spirit should see this video... a must-see for anyone in a caregiving or health-related field, and for all in the healing professions."
– Sandra Hernandez, Former Director of Public Health, City & County of San Francisco

"...Skilled and poetic... a sensitive and fresh portrayal."
– Victor Lipari, Dance Films Association

"A real contribution... Dancers, artists, health practitioners, and those who have struggled silently alone in their healing journeys will find value in this work, faithfully captured by the filmmaker whose compassionate eye brings clarity and perspective to this affirming life dance."
– Tina Stromsted, Registered Dance Therapist, California Institute of Integral Studies

"An intimate video portrait in which movement becomes a way to make the personal political... shows theatre where the dance changes the dancer, where the act of performing is itself healing."
– Janice Ross, Ph.D., Stanford University; Dancemagazine critic

Producer/Director
Andy Abrahams Wilson

Co-Producer
USC Center for Visual Anthropology

Cinematography / Editing
Andy Abrahams Wilson

Sound
Nila Bogue

Original Music
Norman Rutherford
Jules Beckman

Fiscal Sponsor
The Tamalpa Institute

Major Funding
James C. Hormel Foundation

Dance on Camera Festival, Best of Show

Grand Prix de Video Danse (Paris), Press & Artistic Jury Awards

American Dance Festival

Film Arts Festival (San Francisco)

American Psychological Association

Dance Screen Festival (Berlin)

AIDS on Screen Festival (Hong Kong)

AIDS International Update Conference

Dance and Video Festival (Milan)

International Video Competition on AIDS (Italy)