Filmmaker Howard Brookner follows the avant-garde theatre director as he confronts a hectic work schedule, funding difficulties and relentless international travel in attempt to complete his preparations.
Known for his precise, painterly images Wilson’s work derives more from visual art than the orthodox literary traditions of theatre.
As a result, Wilson often challenges actors to perform in a boldly minimalist style, as well as collaborating with non-actors, such as young autistic poet Christopher Knowles in Einstein on the Beach.
Like Howard Brookner’s earlier film Burroughs, Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars features unique access to its subject, as well as an impressive host of interviewees, including Wilson’s long-term composer Philip Glass, Heiner Müller, Lucinda Childs, Sheryl Sutton, Ingrid Andree, Bénédicte Pesle, Gavin Bryars, Michel Guy, Isabel Eberstadt and Christopher Knowles.
The film originally screened in avant-garde and cinema festivals, as well as on public television in the US, on the BBC in the UK and on November 25, 1985, on ZDF in Germany.