I Remember
(Watashi wa oboeteiru)- JAPAN / 2021 / Japanese / Color / Digital File / 224 min
Director, Photography, Editing: Hatano Shuhei
Produced by: Genjiten Project
Source: Genjiten Project
Ten people face the camera and talk about “remembering.” This film is made up of their individual fragments of memories from lives spanning the prewar years to the present, from birth and childhood to their work and experiences starting families all the way up to today, along with memories of the Tottori region. In the tradition of Ogawa Shinsuke’s Furuyashiki: A Japanese Village (1982), the film is a vehicle to mediate and transmit the words of these individuals.
[Director’s Statement] I decided to ask ten senior citizens to share their recollections, from their earliest memories through the present. As they reflected on their long lives, they repeatedly used the phrase, “you probably wouldn’t understand.” Their experiences were in fact very specific. There was nothing that could be called plainly understandable. I began to sense the vast time beyond my awareness that it had taken these people to arrive in the present moment at this place in front of me. This is a record of people living unique and singular lives.
Hatano ShuheiHatano Shuhei was born in 1980 in Tottori and currently lives in Tokyo. He is a graduate of the Moving Images and Performing Arts Department at Tama Art University. His films include Trail (2012) and Origin of Shadows (2017, Tokyo Documentary Film Festival 2018 Short Film Competition Grand Prize, Festival Film Dokumenter 2019 Official Selection).