On the Road to a Creative City of Film
Using art and culture to create a creative city—that is Yamagata City’s vision. Initiatives are under way to showcase through film production the charm and life of Yamagata, to people both inside and outside of the city. This time, we are screening short films produced between 2015 and 2016 by young filmmakers and students with connections to Yamagata.
Part 1: TUAD Video Department Students Film Yamagata’s Future
- Date: Oct. 10 (Tue) 13:50
- Venue: Yamagata Museum of Art 2
- Screenings:
- Hard Boiled City Yamagata and Living with Film
Post-Screening Q&A Session - Speakers:
- TUAD Video department students
Hayashi Kaizo (Video Department Chairman)
Kato Itaru (Video Department Professor)
Hard Boiled City Yamagata
- JAPAN / 2016 / Japanese / Color / Blu-ray / 22 min
Produced by: Tohoku University of Art and Design, Hayashi Kaizo, Kato Itaru
Directors: Matsumoto Tatsuki and other students
The Goddess of Zao who awakened from a slumber begun in the Jomon period, and the mysterious baron who keeps the key of time at Bunshokan, leaps over modern times into Yamagata’s future and battles for dominance . . . This work was produced through a collaborative effort by third-year film students. The film ends with Yamagata’s Mayor conveying a powerful message regarding Yamagata’s participation in the Creative City Network.
Living with Film
(Eizo to mukiau ikikata)- JAPAN / 2017 / Japanese / Color / Blu-ray / 39 min
Director: Ito Kengo
A film by Ito Kengo, a graduate of the Tohoku University of Art and Design, about three film students at the same college. The three step closer to their vision of their future selves through making films at school. Director Ito captures their feelings of conflict, uncertainty, and hope for the future. The students’ own films are also shown in this film.
Part 2: Yamagata Renaissance through Film
- Date: Oct. 10 (Tue) 19:10
- Venue: Yamagata Museum of Art 2
- Screenings:
- Yamagata Iron Castings and Yamagata Forged Blades
Q&A after the screening in the museum café, enjoying tea poured from Yamagata cast iron - Panelists:
- Sato Koichi (Director, Yamagata Forged Blades)
Okabe Nobuyuki (Vice Director of the Yamagata Museum of Art), and others
Yamagata Iron Castings—Functional Design in Daily Life
(Yamagata imono Kurashi no design o motomete)- JAPAN / 2016 / Japanese / Color / Blu-ray / 24 min
Director: Watanabe Satoshi
Why is it that the culture and production of iron castings sprouted in Yamagata about 900 years ago, a place that was not a producing area for iron? The techniques and products carried down from the distant past are highly acclaimed abroad, and the younger generation has now begun to take note. We can see an old, yet new lifestyle that uses iron-cast products in daily life, down several generations. The footage was filmed at the iron casting factory in Yamagata’s Domachi, and other places.
Yamagata Forged Blades
(Yamagata uchihamono Seikatsu no naka no dogu)- JAPAN / 2016 / Japanese / Color / Blu-ray / 22 min
Director: Sato Koichi
The three necessities—clothing, food, and shelter—all originally made by forged blades. Forged blades in Yamagata can be traced back to 1300 A.D. From kitchen knives that support our cooking and food culture, to scythes and pruning scissors indispensable for agricultural work, forged blades might be in the background, but they are vital to our daily lives. This film showcases Yamagata’s unique technique—which fuses together soft iron and tempered hard iron—the manufacturing locations, and the people who inherited the techniques.