That short film was well-received at festivals. The work process was so inspiring – dance is such an amazing visual language. In 2012, I released a short documentary film – Five Steps of Butoh – which was about Japanese contemporary dance.

What was the creative process that brought together the idea of making a documentary about the creation of Anima Ardens? We caught up with Aleksandr Vinogradov for a behind-the-scenes look at the film. Male nudity is a tool to tackle taboos head on. There’s an obvious homo-social and homo-erotic context when filming a group of naked men – perhaps even more so here as all the dancers seem to be gay – but this is a film that isn’t prurient and doesn’t rely on eroticism to hold our attention.Īnima Ardens is exploring human rituals, and is a journey towards personal liberation.

In this instance, the focus is on dance and on movement. We’re used to seeing naked male bodies, but it’s rare to be able to observe a group of naked men – men who are comfortable with their bodies and each other – focused on something other than sex or the act of being naked.