Puppetry: Worlds of Imagination (2001)

This documentary surveys the revolutionary new developments in American puppet theater, profiling many of puppetry's most imaginative contemporary artists, including Basil Twist, who uses bits of fabric, feathers, plastic and other materials in a 1,000-gallon tank of water to create a visually stunning underwater ballet musically accompanied by Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" Ralph Lee, founder of the famous Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, discusses his current work designing figures for ballets and symphony orchestras and we see excerpts from his own theater company's production, which employs puppets as vehicles for the exploration of supernatural myths and legends; Michael Curry discusses the masks and puppets he created for the Broadway production of The Lion King, as well as the Super Bowl, the Olympics and the Millennium Celebration in New York City; Cheryl Henson, daughter of Jim (The Muppets) Henson, discusses the biannual Jim Henson International Festival of Puppet Theatre as we see excerpts of some of these innovative presentations; we also visit the puppetry program at the California Institute of the Arts, including one of puppeteer Janie Geiser's classes; and the video concludes by discussing the new directions and new ideas in puppetry and the ways it is transforming opera, music, theater and dance.