Robert Wilson, a pioneering artist and director, initiated an unprecedented project: a twelve-hour opera composed by Philip Glass, to be performed by six companies from around the world: the US, Japan, and four European countries, on the occasion of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The film’s director, a friend of Wilson’s, followed the lengthy, exhausting and extraordinarily ambitious process behind the making of this opera.

The film documents the working process behind the planned production: rehearsals, experiments, meetings, and travels, revealing the constant tension between a radical artistic vision and the constraints of time, budget, and reality. It is a portrait of a creator working on an extreme scale, and a rare opportunity to observe the creative process while honoring the legacy of Wilson, who passed away last year. The print to be screened at the festival is a new, restored version.