Returning Home

Featuring Anna Halprin, a distinguished proponent of post-modern dance and a cancer survivor, Returning Home illustrates her efforts to connect with the natural world through her art as part of the expressive arts healing movement. Interviews in which Halprin describes the human form as a microcosm of the Earth and discusses her dedication to bringing the two back into alignment are alternated with scenes in which--heavily made up with paint, mud, grass, and branches--she engages with outdoor surroundings: rolling about on the lakeshore, for example, or embracing the trees (these are referred to as "dances," though some viewers might question the term). While one can hardly fail to be moved by Halprin's spirit and dedication and amused by the scenes in which she reacts to the discomfort her makeup causes, Andy Abrahams Wilson's film about Halprin is too pretentious, artsy, and repetitive to have the desired effect; in the final analysis it's less uplifting than curiously irritating. Not recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)