Directed by David Mambouch • Documentary • 2020 • 105 minutes

Star choreographer Maguy Marin burst onto the 1970s French new wave dance scene. A contemporary of Pina Bausch, Marin’s work stood out for its theatrical aesthetic, political commentary, and audacious integration of traditional dance with unexpected narrative, musical and physical elements.

In 1981, Marin’s work “May B,” inspired by the work of modernist playwright Samuel Beckett, upset the dance world; it rejected traditional ideals of beauty and embraced a fiercely political perspective. Since then, Marin’s work has grown in popularity; she has won numerous awards and her pieces are regularly presented at all major dance festivals, from the Rio Favellas (Lilia Rodrigues’s company) to the Joyce Theater (NY). The documentary Maguy Marin: Time to Act offers remarkable footage of live performances, as well as first person interviews with a choreographer whose work is daring, moving and continues to defy convention.

In 2016, the Venice Biennale awarded Maguy Marin with The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement recipient.

“Directed with sophistication and love by her son, David Mambouch, it covers [Marin's] career, her revolt against conventional beauty, her love of the awkward and grotesque, her political principles and struggles. A maker of grim art turns out to be charming.” —The New York Times