TURNING takes the viewer into the world of Antony and the Johnsons as they tour their astonishing live concert/performance work, “Turning”. At its center are a series of intimate interviews with the women who performed this extraordinary show with Antony. Their stories combine with Antony’s mesmerizingly emotional songs to create a powerful journey of struggle and hope.
The Turning live show was a critically acclaimed concert/performance piece created by singer/composer Antony and video artist Charles Atlas. The show sets Antony and the Johnson’s singular music against Atlas’s hypnotic full stage live video images. Onstage, 13 performers, described as “beauties”, pose, one at a time, on a rotating platform. The women explore femininity and identity by their simple presence as Antony sings his hauntingly beautiful songs of alienation and transcendance. The women are, like Antony himself, not easily definable personas. Whether they are androgynous, transgender, covered in makeup or bare skinned, what is important is their hard won humanity. They come from the fringes where the struggle to be oneself is a revolutionary act.
The film’s intimate interviews with the performers give us a glimpse of that struggle. With humor and affection, the company talks about their lives and histories. The film showcases Antony’s rawly emotional singing in unprecedented stage footage, and its loving and intimate portrait of the company is captivating, heartbreaking, and ultimately hope-filled and joyous.
“TURNING is a dignified, breathtakingly beautiful film which will hopefully find a distributor soon.”
– Berliner Zeitung, February 10, 2012
“breathtakingly effective . . . fragile, life-affirming, and truly wonderful.”
– The Guardian UK (five star review of the concert)
