KIKAIDE MIRUKOTO = Eye Machine / To See by Chance –The Pioneers of Japanese Video Arts–
02013HD
Video began as a medium that inspired discovery. This art documentary traces the expressive roots of “media art” in Japan — works of video, performances, and installations created using video technology that allowed for free and creative visual expression.
Masato Hara made his directorial debut in high school in 1968 and achieved a reputation as a young prodigy. Many years later, he continues to make films and show his old experimental 'live-screening' films, but is saddled with massive debts. This film follows eight years in his life.
Lately, I cannot help thinking; “What if the gods created life and death by mistake?” I find it odd that as I age, my body withers. If, as I slip into old age, my heart becomes young, then it would be appropriate if my body could follow suit. Wouldn’t it be nice if humans were born elderly,...
Photographs of a nude, arranged into stop-motion sequences on the left half of the screen, are juxtaposed with a close-up of the film itself passing in front of a viewer, gradually revealed on the right half of the screen.
As demonstrated by the film's title, Kawanaka has been exploring the theme of “Shishōsetsu” (“realized” fiction) for some time. For the author, there is a personal tension which develops between the self which experiences life, and the self which attempts to record images filtered through...
A compilation of Kawanaka's representative "Shishōsetsu" series. "The title of my film series, 'I-novel,' is easily misunderstood. The 'I-novel' is a traditional Japanese literary form in which the filmmaker depicts his or her life as if poking around in a box. That's why I didn't shoot it like a...
The work by Nobuhiro Kawanaka, who consistently produces film works from a personal aspect, focuses on Naito Chin (comedian, book reviewer), who had passed away in 2011. With the enormous footage Kawanaka has taken, the time he and Naito had spent together will be revived on screen.
A nostalgic work, which attempts to reconstruct the materials of postwar 35 mm newsreel footage given by the filmmakers’ friend and old tinted picture postcards. He frankly describes in his own coherent style of filmmaking how he was moved when he saw these films and photographs for the first...
Shinjuku Legend: Nagisa Yoko Shinjuku Koma Gewa-gewa Recital
02009HD
Since she was a little girl, Nagisa Yoko had two dreams: one was to have a song written for her by Aku Yu; the other was to sing at the Shinjuku Koma Theater. Aku Yu had already had written an original song for her. When Nagisa heard that the Shinjuku Koma Theater was to close down, she decided...
In recent years, my older colleagues and friends have begun to pass away one after another. I wonder if I'm reaching that age myself, and I feel like time is chasing me. I had a brush with death when I was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2005, and I was able to enjoy that situation with more...
“I am deeply involved in human memory and the feeling of nostalgia brought about by time. For this piece, my challenge was to observe time within the frame.” (Nobuhiro Kawanaka)
Writes Kawanaka, "Video is a medium of image as well as sound. Walking on a gravel road with a camera, the crunch sound is captured in real time. Such [an] observation seems obvious, but as a filmmaker, the ability to record sound in real time was very new to me. Referencing a can-kicking game I...
The newest work in a series of works employing 16mm film to exchange correspondence between the two filmmakers Nobuhiro Kawanaka and Sakumi Hagiwara. The principal theme of the series, begun in 1979, was "the landscape of memory", and the theme of this film is "travel". The thoughts of the two...
