Memento Stella
JAPAN, HONG KONG / 2018 / No Dialogue / Color / DCP / 60 min
Director, Script, Photography, Editing: Makino Takashi
Sound, Music: Reinier van Houdt
Source: Makino Takashi
This documentary captures various real-life phenomena, reducing them to the finest grains, to be transformed into powerful visual and auditory textures, as if to reconfirm that our planet is an aggregate of light. Within it, we cannot help seeing our strivings as a people down the course of human history. A dance of light and sound that invites us to a wholly unique and transcendent moving image experience.
[Director’s Statement] The film’s title is of my own phrasing—it means, “Think about the stars” or “Don’t forget that we are on a star,” and it’s also the title of a project which I began in the winter of 2016. The project has taken a number of formats, including 360-degree panoramic video, music, installations, and engravings. I’ve travelled the world screening my work for the past few years. And in this dark, dismal world—with countless lives lost to all the war and terror, not to mention natural disasters caused by abnormal weather—death never left my thoughts for a single day. Yet the commonality among all human beings and living things in this world is found not only in the fact that there comes a day when we must all leave this world but also that we are all born on this little planet and continue to inhabit it. I made this film with the hope that if we can remain aware of these facts, if for only for an instant each day, then perhaps we might transcend the spheres of religion, politics, national borders, language and personal desire, so as to be connected somewhere deep down in our hearts—sharing this expression of art, sharing the light and the sounds: this World. The technique by which this film was produced greatly deviates from the forms of documentary, but I believe that this filmmaking approach—that seeks how to react to this world and how to get through it—has a fundamental connection with that of documentary filmmakers.
Born in 1978. After graduating from the Cinema Department of the Nihon University College of Art in 2001, Makino Takashi went to London to meet the Quay Brothers, receiving guidance from them in the fields of image, light, and sound. Next, he worked as a telecine colorist on theatrical releases, honing his film and video skills. In 2004 he started organizing film screenings. Using media that includes both film and video, he shoots humans, natural phenomena, cityscapes, and built objects, layering and re-assembling them in editing. His works have an extremely organic and imaginative quality that create an impression of infinite extension, which has earned them the highest praise internationally. Now based in Japan, his films, music, installations and performances have been presented in over 120 cities around the world. He has won numerous prizes at international festivals, including the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2012, as well as other prizes including at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival, the Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, 25FPS International Experimental Film/Video Festival (Croatia), and the VIDEOEX Festival (the first Japanese director to win prizes at all festivals listed here). Served on the jury of the International Competition at YIDFF 2015.