JAPAN MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL

PARTICIPATION IN OVERSEAS MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL

Screening Program

Portrait of Japanese Animation


This program introduces animations, music video and other video works which reflect the everyday in contemporary Japan through very Japanese perceptions and depictions of emotions.


ISSEY MIYAKE A-POC INSIDE.
ISSEY MIYAKE A-POC INSIDE.

MASAHIKO SATO + EUPHRATES (Japan)

Art Division 2007 Excellence Award 2 min. 50sec.
Video work

The promotion film of a new brand, A-POC INSIDE. by ISSEY MIYAKE. Employing the expertise of cognitive science, the group achieved the expression of animated movement of fashion models through a composition using only white points and letters on a black background.


Yuki Matsumura 「solo scum」
Yuki Matsumura 「solo scum」

MUKAI Jumpei (Japan)

Entertainment Division 2015 Jury Selections2 min.13 sec.
Music video

A music video for the electronic musician Yuki Matsumura, in which Shibuya Station is captured on high resolution film and processed using the slit-scan method. The elongated screen size resembles a thin, blood vessel-like tube and the distortion, produced by processing the visual image, symbolizes an uncertain world and human's inner flaws. Its view of the world, which transcends time and space, makes the viewer feel as if the “bug” is occurring in the actual world.


Xylophone
Xylophone

HARANO Morihiro / NISHIDA Jun / HISHIKAWA Seiichi / MATSUO Kenjiro / TSUDA Mitsuo / OISO Toshifumi (Japan)

Entertainment Division 2011 Jury Selections 2 min. 2 sec.
Video work

A commercial for cell phones that use lumber thinned from a woodlot as backing. The woodlot artisans used the same lumber to construct a 44-meter xylophone down a slope through the woods, and a wooden ball set to run along it plays Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, from Bach’s Cantata 147. The product’s ecological concept is delivered along with a beautiful setting and music.


kiokuzenkei
kiokuzenkei

YOKOTA Masashi(Japan)

Art Division 2008 Jury Selections 5 min. 27 sec.
Video work

Single frames from videos of family and scenes are taken out as still photos, cut, processed, arranged in the desired chronological order and shot in stop motion to express forms captured as 2D images as if they were moving in 3D space.


まつすぐな道でさみしい
I am alone, walking on the straight road.

OKAMOTO Masanori (Japan)

Animation Division 2012 Jury Selections 5 min. 53 sec.
Animated short film

Inspired by TANEDA Santoka (1882-1940), one of Japan’s most prominent free-verse haiku poets, this animated work turns the emotion of “loneliness” into a symbol. Surrounded by mountain greenery in the midst of a solitary journey, the protagonist, redfaced and sl ightly tipsy, is portrayed in meticulous detail using a cutout technique.


Legend of the Forest Part 2
Legend of the Forest Part 2

TEZKA Macoto(Japan)

Animation Division 2014 Jury Selections12 min.00 sec.
Animated short film

Legend of the Forest is an unfinished experimental animation, made by TEZUKA Osamu in 1987. Envisioned as four parts, TEZUKA died after completing only the first and fourth movement. His son, video artist TEZKA Macoto, continued his work, based on TEZUKA's notes. By making the second installment in the sequence, TEZKA Macoto has realized a co-production with his father 27 years later.


Blue Eyes – in HARBOR TALE –
Blue Eyes – in HARBOR TALE –

ITO Yuichi(Japan)

Animation Division 2014 Jury Selections7 min.40 sec.
Animated short film

The setting is the port town of Y. Over time the historical buildings have started to come to life. A brick works as a pilot for visitors from overseas. When one day it encounters a doll arriving on a canal boat, this little tale starts to enfold. The animated short uses “neo-craft animation” techniques, fusing stop motion video and computer graphics.


The House of Small Cubes
The House of Small Cubes

KATO Kunio (Japan)

Animation Division 2008 Grand Prize 12 min. 4 sec.
Animated short film

An old man lives in a room that resembles a pile of stacked up wooden blocks surrounded by water. He drops his pipe in the submerged lower floor. When he dives to pick it up, he encounters memories of his family carved in each room. The precious memories of the people he used to know, including his absent wife and daughter, are depicted with a gentle touch, making this a fine and moving piece of work. The theme of global warming is also hidden just below the surface.