japanese
Islands / I Lands
—Cinemas in Exile
  • The Sorceress of Dirah
  • Meta Ekologi
  • Foreign Sky
  • each film . . . an island?
  • Accentuation
  • The Place Where I Live—and touch me
  • Reflection
  • Amami Film: In Memory of Miho-san
  • dolce . . .
  • Puppet Shaman Star
  • Promised Paradise
  • Order
  • Life on Distant Islands
  • The Struggle Against Endemic Diseases
  • At the End of the Arc: Yaeyama Islands
  • Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
  • Maria Rosalie Zerrudo
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    Reflection

    (“Shimakage”)
    - JAPAN / 2007 / Japanese / Color / Video / 60 min

    Director, Photography, Editing, Source: Marutani Hajime

    The director revisits Yakushima Island and stays at the house of Osanai Takashi, a middle-aged painter. Encountering the painter’s life philosophy and watched over by Michan and Akkun, children who have grown up on the island, Marutani turns his sight on the air, rain, wind, colors, voices, and shapes of the island. Attempting to film things that have no form, the director begins an endless chase. Through his lens we glimpse his attraction to the island, as it mists over under cloudy skies.


    - Marutani Hajime

    Born in Tokyo in 1971, Marutani began making films with an 8mm camera while in high school. After graduating from college, he traveled around the world, taking photographs. Marutani studied documentary filmmaking under Sato Makoto. His works include Life, Kamishibai (2003) and Green in the Cage (2006). Reflection is Marutani’s most self-reflective work to date.