Private Project

EKIDEN

26 Miles to Relay A Message Of Unity.

This short documentary film is about a Japanese traditional long-distance relay race called Ekiden. In 2021, our team held an Ekiden race in New York City to display the city’s diversity and how different people can unite by running together to achieve a common goal.

We thought running could be a literal and figurative representation of the year 2020. The impact of the pandemic, the political climate, the social and racial injustice, we all ran through something, whether it was individually or as a team. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow. It seemed as though we are running through a long tunnel without knowing when the sky would open back up again.

Though an Ekiden is a race, the event does not involve any competition. For this race, we focused on another aspect of Ekiden, which makes it unique. During an Ekiden, runners must wear a Tasuki-sash, which is handed off to the following runner. Originally, before this became a sporting event and before we had telecommunications, this was a method of carrying messages between cities in Japan in the fastest way possible. The common goal for each of our runners is to complete a message of positivity and unity, passing the Tasuki to future generations.

  • Haruna Azumi
    Director
  • Haruna Azumi
    Writer
  • Ryuma Matsuzaka
    Producer
  • Haruna Azumi
    Producer
  • Coffey
    Key Cast
  • ADUM⁷ aka MeccaGodZilla
    Key Cast
  • Craig Horsley
    Key Cast
  • Kimberly Ann Yee
    Key Cast
  • Julia Lucas
    Key Cast
  • Ryuma Matsuzaka
    Key Cast
  • Haruna Azumi
    Editor
  • Shu Hirayama
    Editor
  • Haruna Azumi
    DP
  • Amin Shaikh
    DP
  • Nagamitsu Endo
    DP
  • Shu Hirayama
    DP
  • Keita Ogawa
    Music
  • Sashank Sana
    Colorist
  • Taichi Yamada
    Sound Mixcer and Designer
  • Edwin Reyes
    Title Designer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    22 minutes 48 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 30, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, Japanese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 4K UHD
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Haruna Azumi

Haruna is a New York City-based director, producer and filmmaker. She originally hails from Tokyo, Japan where she made commercial films, documentary films, and various other films.

A feature documentary film "Born Balearic: Jon Sa Trinxa and the Spirit of Ibiza" she produced has been nominated by several international film festivals such as Seeyousound International Film Festival in Italy, Madrid International Film Festival in Spain, Doc'n Roll Film Festival in UK, and more. It was also distributed at 12 movie theaters in Japan.

She was a producer on the short documentary film “UBUGOE” which was nominated by international award competitions such as CLIO Award (one of the biggest international competitions of creative business film), ADFEST (Asia’s most celebrated and recognized regional creative festival) and JAAP International Short Film Festival (one of the biggest short film competition in Japan), among others.

Currently, she's working as a director on a short documentary titled "EKIDEN", as a producer on Music Videos, and as a director, producer and planner on various advertising videos in NYC.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The goal with the Ekiden event and film is to display the variety of individual lives and how doing so can be a way of creating understanding, imagination, and empathy towards others. The film portrays each runner, documenting their day and writing their messages on the Tasuki-sash, leading up to the race. The concept comes from our Japanese identity, using traditional methods from a Japanese relay race to send a message in a modern setting. The ultimate goal is to enhance the message of unity beyond our differences, no matter what a person's color is, where they're from, or what they believe in.

1. When I started thinking about a way to show how people are different, I thought it was obvious that we are all different, but how different? So I decided to put the six runners in a common situation, which is the fact that they are going to run together in the upcoming Ekiden.

2. I believed that sound, smell, atmosphere, people, food, and materials surrounding a person in their life illustrates who they are sometimes more than words can. I filmed a slice of each human story from a perspective that displays how uniqueness is beautiful, almost without explanation. I observationally documented, for example, where each participant lives, what they eat and how, what they have in their place, what they see outside of their windows, and more. I also captured the "sounds of them" and placed their natural sounds in the film.