Ailey

Synopsis

Director:
Jamila Wignot.
82 min, US, 2021

Visionary Black choreographer Alvin Ailey was a pioneer of modern dance, infusing the art-form with the rich history of the African American experience and “a discourse on freedom… and soaring delights,” as author Zadie Smith once wrote. In this poetic documentary, director Jamila Wignot gracefully weaves together a tapestry of past and present, of archival footage from Ailey’s small-town Texas roots and rising career in New York City, along with a vast trove of his moving masterpieces. What emerges is a complex and impressionistic picture of a determined figure, whose powerful dance pieces revealed more about his personal struggles and triumphs than any words could describe. “A tour de force of archival assemblage” that “tells his life story with searing intimacy but also jubilant solidarity” (Filmmaker Magazine), Ailey is “tantalizing… poetic… [and] powerfully evocative” (Variety).