Invisible People: an exploratory, experimental film on Butoh

Berger spent four years living in Japan, moving within communities of dancers, filmmakers, and musicians. What began as informal, narration-free filming — including weekly visits to Yoshito Ohno’s studio — slowly unfolded into a long-term cinematic attention to Butoh as it continues to exist today.

Invisible People follows dancers who hover between visibility and invisibility, between appearing and disappearing and memory. Rather than explaining or historicizing, the film stays close to bodies, gestures, atmospheres — allowing presence to emerge, waver, recede, and return. It’s also a film about fathers- her own and the final „father figure“ Yoshito Ohno. It is attentive to what flickers at the edge of perception.

In conversation, Achatz and Berger explore artistic collaborations, alliances,  the contemporary Butoh dance scene in Japan and how Butoh inhabits thresholds between life and death, presence and absence. An episode for listeners drawn to dance, Japan, experimental cinema.

„Further Information: https://www.fortisfemfilm.com/invisiblepeople

2023, 71 min, experimental documentary, 

Director: Alisa Berger 

in Co-Production with

Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains (FR)

Invisible People is a multi-layered depiction of the unique Japanese contemporary dance Butoh that flows between revolt, eroticism, trance, prayer, ancestral experience, and physical anonymity. The film gradually drifts away from its core issue and becomes a general portrayal of life itself, with all its unforeseen strokes of fate and strange micro-connections.​“

Deutsche Kino-Tour 2025-2026
​Sonderveranstaltungen / Special Screenings:

18.11. – Karlsruhe – Kinemathek Karlsruhe – 19:30 Uhr

19.11. – Berlin – B-Ware Ladenkino – 18:00 Uhr- w Q&A

26.11. – München – Monopol Kino – 18:30 Uhr – w Q&A

29.11. – München – Werkstattkino – 17:15 Uhr –  w Q&A mit Alisa Berger

und Stefan Maria Marb

​04.12 – Berlin – Brotfabrik Kino – 18:00 Uhr – w Q&A 

05.12 – 07.12 – Berlin – Brotfabrik Kino – täglich um 18:00 Uhr

06.12 – Essen – Filmstudio Glückauf – 17.30 Uhr

07.12 – Köln – Filmhaus Kino – 17:00 Uhr – w Q&A

12.12 – Bamberg – Lichtspiel Bamberg – 17:00 Uhr- w Q&A 

12.12 – Nürnberg – KommKino Nürnberg – 21.15 Uhr – w Q&A 

13.12. – Düsseldorf – Bambi Kino – 15:00 Uhr 

13.12. – Leipzig – Kinobar Prager Frühling – 18:00 Uhr – w Q&A

13.12 – 14.12 – Bamberg – Lichtspiel Bamberg – täglich

19.12. – Hannover – Kino im Sprengel 

17.01.2026 – Berlin – Lichtblick Kino – 18:30 Uhr – w Q&A

19.01.2026 – Erftstadt – VHS 

20.01.2026 – Bonn – University of Bonn – 16:00 Uhr – w Q&A

11.02.2026 – Bremen – City 46 – 18:00 Uhr – w Q&A