" MONO NO AWARE x [+] "
JAPAN CUTS 2015: EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM

SUNDAY JULY 12, 2015 @ THE JAPAN SOCIETY
333 EAST 47TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY – 8:45PM
TICKETS: $13/$10 JAPAN SOCIETY MEMBERS, SENIORS, STUDENTS

Introduction and reception with filmmakers Steve Cossman, Akiko Maruyama, Tomonari Nishikawa, Joel Schlemowitz, & Ted Wiggin

A special program of experimental work produced within the communities of Mono No Aware and the Tokyo-based [+] (Plus) curated for JAPAN CUTS 2015. Organized by Japan Society, Steve Cossman of Mono No Aware and Takashi Makino of [+].

FULL PROGRAM:
DIRECT FILMMAKING ANIMATION WORKSHOP FILMS
(Various Participants, 2015, 8 minutes, 16mm film, optical sound)
Premiere of films made in the MONO NO AWARE direct filmmaking animation workshop at the Japan Society.

RELAY
(Steve Cossman, 2014, 11 minutes, Super 8mm film to HDV, digital sound)
A moving-image document of the visual environment created by artist Ei Wada (Japan). Wadasan re-wires Braun-tubed TVs to function similar to a theremin. Performing in the dark, he creates a unique audio/visual experience using broadcast signal and VHS cassette tapes with distorted image output to control frequency. Playing multiple televisions like a drum-set, he uses his own hands to control amplitude. I conducted an interview with Wadasan and filmed two performances; one in Germany, the other in Japan. Based on our conversations, I created this short piece that emphasized his grassroots approach to instrument making and reflected his own concepts about performance as art. This film was shot entirely on Super 8mm film, hand processed and transferred to DV with recorded sound performance in Osnebruck, Germany and Tokyo, Japan.

Koropokkuru
(Akiko Maruyama, 2015, 5 minutes, 16mm color film, digital sound)
Koropokkuru is a moving portrayal of an unknown force that can be humanlike or can embody itself within the objects displayed. It’s sometimes an invisible force like the wind or seemingly everywhere, like plain gravity. The qualities of this unknown force can take the form of human natures such as ideals, justice and mind negotiations. These epitomize the reality which is opaque and recognizable. The concept is inspired by the folktale of the Koropokkuru from the Ainu culture in Japan. The story of The Invisible Man is another inspiration as well as the artist’s own collage works, which are a gathering of disjointed materials to create a new found amalgamation. Parts of these collages include collaborations with experimental animator Philippe Roy.

Louis Armstrong Obon
(Joel Schlemowitz, 2015, 13 minutes 30 seconds, Super 8mm and HD, digital sound)
A portrait of Japanese jazz musicians Yoshio and Kekio Toyama as seen through their annual summer pilgrimage to the grave of Louis Armstrong in Flushing, Queens, to commemorate Satchmo’s birthday. By sheer happenstance this is also time of year in Japan called “Obon,” when family graveside visits are made to pay respect to one’s ancestors.

EMBLEM
(Rei Hayama, 2012, 16 minutes, 16mm to HDCAM, digital sound)
Video footage for the research of Japanese endangered species of raptores, is turned into decorative fiction film through the conversion process between video and film. Just as a human changed abstraction like a god, a tribe, a nation and a virtue into the emblem through the visual-term in nature, this film shows another story that inhabits the nature.

Stella Nova
(Ted Wiggins, 2015, 4 minutes 11 seconds, 16mm color film, optical sound)
Red blue green, circle square triangle, dog star man. The life and death of a star.

Emaki/Light
(Takashi Makino & Takashi Ishida, 2011, 16 minutes, 35mm & 16mm to HDCAM, digital sound)
Drawing on film by Ishida Takashi edit and telecine by Makino Takashi. Music by Ishida Takashi & Makino Takashi

sound of a million insects, light of a thousand stars
(Tomonari Nishikawa, 2014, 2 minutes, 35mm color film, optical sound)
I buried a 100-foot (about 30 meters) 35mm negative film under fallen leaves alongside a country road, which was about 25 km away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, for about 6 hours, from the sunset of June 24, 2014, to the sunrise of the following day. The night was beautiful with a starry sky, and numerous summer insects were singing loud. The area was once an evacuation zone, but now people live there after the removal of the contaminated soil. This film was exposed to the possible remaining of the radioactive materials

DUB HOUSE Experience in Material No. 52
(Kei Shichiri & Ryoji Suzuki, 2012, 16 minutes, 35mm, optical sound)
“”Substance attempt 51: DUBHOUSE” in the documentary film of. original intent of capturing the darkness architecture produce suffers a decisive change by the events of the next year March 11. Shichiri, place the darkness of the same time as part of the light that has taken the exhibited works at the beginning, in it, it was to sink the affected areas of the drawing that Suzuki drew. Movie theater is a building that has inherent darkness. Movie that tries to Ukabiagaro from the darkness, and at the same time is the light emitted to the cinema, there may be a prayer. This is a meta-movie of the far north, is also a response to the historic event.”