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director's chair Wim Wenders — Pina H By IAIN BLAIR Showing off the beauty of dance in stereo 3D. OLLYWOOD — German director Wim Wenders has long been ranked as one of the major direc- tors of world cinema, thanks to such diverse and acclaimed films as Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire, Until The End Of The World, The Million Dollar Hotel and the Oscar-nominated Buena Vista Social Club He's also likes to push creative boundaries, and did so again on Pina, which captures the brilliantly inventive dance routines of the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, in 3D. Here, in an exclusive Post interview, Wenders talks about making the film (which is Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary Feature), his love of post, and why he's such a big 3D fan. POST: What was the genesis for this film? WIM WENDERS: "I saw one of her shows in Venice, back in the mid-eighties, and I was so impressed. Gradually, we became good friends, and I got the idea for a film about her amazing choreography." POST: Is it true that you tried and failed to make this film for many years? WENDERS: "It's true — for 20 years Pina and I talked about it, after I'd suggested it, and it became this joke between us. She'd ask me about it from time to time, and I'd just say, 'I don't know how to make it yet.' I studied all these dance films, but I still had no idea how to film dance or capture the sheer joy and free- dom of Pina's work. Then I saw U2's U2-3D in Cannes, and it just hit me — we had to do it in 3D. That was the only way, because dance is all about movement in space, and only 3D can truly capture that physical sensation." POST: Then Pina died very suddenly. Did you consider giving up the project? WENDERS: "Yes, because it was such a shock. She died just two days before we were finally ready to start shooting in 2009. But her dancers and friends and family felt we should go ahead anyway, so we did." The stereo experience while working on Pina, left Wenders "hooked." POST: There are quite a few firsts here — it's the first 3D art house film, and one of the few 3D European films. Do you feel like a pioneer? WENDERS: "In a way. It was the first 3D film ever in Germany. When we started mak- ing the film back in 2009, 3D was still relatively new, and you couldn't just go out and rent the camera equipment. So we had to make all the 12 Post • March 2012 gear ourselves, and my stereographer Alain Derobe custom-made it all. Now you can just go out and rent all sorts of rigs, but we did feel like pioneers. There was no one we could call to discuss it with or get advice." POST: What about James Cameron? WENDERS: (Laughs) "I didn't have his number, and back then Avatar was still a rumor, and I only saw it much later when I was editing this." POST: Dance projects can often be deadly shot at various locations in and around Wup- pertal. We did it in three stages, between 2009 and 2010. Then we later added archival footage of Pina." POST: Your editor was Toni Froschhammer, who has edited music videos and commercials for you. Tell us about the editing process. Did he visit the set? WENDERS: "Yes, occasionally, and his assistant was there all the time to organize the material. But during the shoot I realized I was so preoccupied that our plan to have Toni Wim Wenders on set: "I love editing. During the shoot I always wish I was already editing, and I don't believe any director who says they love the shoot." serious, but there's a surprising amount of humor in this film. Was that always the intention? WENDERS: "Yes, I thought it was very important to bring out all the comedy in Pina's work because she was so funny herself. She loved to laugh, and even though we were making it under very serious circumstances as she'd just passed away, we all remembered how she was when her companion and life partner also died very young and suddenly. She didn't stop working, and did some of her most joyful work during that very sad period. She just channeled all her sorrow and pain into her dance, and she really believed that with dance, she could solve things. "We all felt the same way with this. We didn't want it to drown in sorrow. If we were going to make this film, it should represent that side of Pina. So we got to work and shot several of her pieces on stage first, and then www.postmagazine.com edit simultaneously didn't work. So once we'd shot the stage pieces, we edited those pieces over five months before starting all the out- doors shoots." POST: Wasn't this his first feature? WENDERS: "Yes, he's a musician and brings a great sense of rhythm to his work, which was perfect for this. Editing dance is very much to do with understanding how music and rhythm interact with movement. He's very fast and a really talented editor, and he loves technology, which was another big advantage since we had to work with soft- ware that barely existed. "When we were cutting, half our day was spent talking with software developers and what they had to improve, so we could con- tinue editing. We cut on Avid but the soft- ware was still a prototype basically. We