Godmount
Osamu, a member of the small catholic minority in Japan, follows in the footsteps of the first Japanese pilgrims to Europe by climbing up on foot to the Benedictine monastery on the holy mountains of Montserrat. A pilgrimage was a way for the pilgrims to deepen their devotion to their deity, experience a spiritual transformation and come to a new understanding. What Osamu learns from his pilgrimage however, isn’t quite what he initially expected.
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Navid Javan ShojamofradDirector
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Osamu WatanabeWriter
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Navid Javan ShojamofradProducer
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Osamu WatanabeProducer
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Navid Javan ShojamofradEditing
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Osamu WatanabeNarration & Acting
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Project Title (Original Language):モンセラート巡礼日記
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Project Type:Documentary, Short, Student
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Runtime:10 minutes 10 seconds
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Completion Date:January 20, 2025
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Production Budget:1,500 EUR
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Country of Origin:Austria
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Country of Filming:Austria, Spain
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Language:Japanese
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:Yes - Technical University of Vienna
Navid Javan Shojamofrad was born in Tehran, Iran in 1995. In 2016 he moved to Vienna,Austria for his studies in the field of Architecture at the Technical University of Vienna. Throughout his studies and work experiences across several different architectural offices in Vienna, he explored different areas of architecture and artistic representation. He discovered his passion for narratives and visual storytelling, using the tools and methods he had learned as an architecture student and designer.
"Godmount is as much a product of its natural circumstances as it is of research. I met Osamu through the filmmaking studio we both took part in at the Technical University of Vienna.
After getting to know each other and learning about his background both as a Japanese person and as a Catholic, we decided to plan this film as a pilgrimage experience, framed through the Japanese tradition of "Nikki"(diary making), unifying his cultural with his religious/spiritual background.
With our research into Montserrat and the history of Christianity in Japan, we were able to explore topics such as the power of nature, history of religion and spirituality(or the origin of spirituality) through Osamu's pilgrimage. Seeing how a pilgrimage is intended to be a transformative journey for the pilgrim, we see Osamu's transformation and his newly discovered understanding. How people's obsession with wanting to believe in some bigger meaning or a higher power can both inspire and mislead us.
The final film is a combination of the documentary footage we gathered throughout our three day stay on the mountain in Spain, with the additional shooting we did in his room in Vienna. A merging of the reactive and spontaneous with the controlled and directed filmmaking."