Experiencing Interruptions?

#manazashi

The film is a road movie that begins with the fieldwork of cultural anthropologist Takao Shimizu and agronomist Ueru Tanaka in African countries and Asia. Their scholarly gaze somehow intersects multilayeredly with the eyes of the filmmakers and the editor staring at a monitor in Tokyo, weaving together the complexities of the world. Long shots of magnificent nature and casual scenes of local life flow comfortably.
(From the introduction by Tokyo Documentary Film Festival 2021)

  • Kenichi Sawazaki
    Director
  • Kenichi Sawazaki
    Producer
  • Kenichi Sawazaki
    Director of photography
  • Ueru Tanaka
    Key Cast
  • Takao Shimizu
    Key Cast
  • Masae Kariya
    Colour Grading
  • Ryo Okamoto
    Acoustic Control
  • Living Montage
    Production
    https://livingmontage.com/
  • Ueru Tanaka
    Photographed by
  • Takao Shimizu
    Photographed by
  • Masashi Suda
    Photographed by
  • Lamin
    Photographed by
  • Zakaria
    Photographed by
  • Habaco
    Commentary
  • mon
    Commentary
  • The Toyota Foundation
    Grants
  • Japan Arts Foundation
    Grants
  • Nomura Foundation
    Grants
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    #まなざしのかたち
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental
  • Genres:
    Documentary, ethnography, art, visual anthropology
  • Runtime:
    2 hours 4 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    December 13, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    3,000,000 JPY
  • Country of Origin:
    Japan
  • Country of Filming:
    Burkina Faso, Japan, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, United Republic of, Viet Nam
  • Language:
    English, French, Japanese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Tokyo Documentary Film Festival 2021
    Tokyo
    Japan
    December 13, 2021
    Japan Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Kenichi Sawazaki

Born in 1978, based in Kyoto in Japan. He is a Japanese contemporary artist and a film director, and earned his PhD in Concept and Media Planning, Kyoto City University of Arts. Also, he is the representative director of "Living Montage" which is a platform for the interdisciplinary use of visual media. In Europe, Asia and Africa, he accompanies researchers such as anthropologists and agronomists on their field research, exploring ways of using video and photographic media to create new discoveries in relation to others.
One of his most recent works is the variable video work "#manazashi" (124 min, 2021, Selected for the Feature Length Competition of the Tokyo Documentary Film Festival), Pero FUKUDA / Kenichi SAWAZAKI / Sangsun BAE "Images don‘t or do they? Talk to each other" (Tosei Kyoto Gallery, 2021, KYOTOGRAPHIE KG+ Official Program) and the documentary film "The Garden in Movement" (85min, 2016, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2016 Premiere Screening) etc.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

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Multiple layers of fragmented images and gazes
that take us on a never-ending journey.
The film is a new way of communication.
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About the video work "#manazashi"*
*"#manazashi" ≒ The eyes in the clearing

We are all fascinated by travelling, but today, travelling is not just about moving from one ‘place to another’. We share the images we have shot and edited ourselves on social networking sites, and travel to various ‘sites’ via images on the internet on a daily basis.

The work "#manazashi" is a work that presents a new method of communication that makes use of images.

You create your own journey as you watch images documenting your journey to Africa and South-East Asia. The journey, which recalls its beginnings, is bet on the creativity that comes from actively trying to see the world reflected in it.

In this film, human activities in Tanzania, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Vietnam and Japan – the research sites of agronomist TANAKA Ueru and cultural anthropologist SHIMIZU Takao – are recorded from various perspectives. In addition, the voices of those who view the recorded footage intermingle in a multilayered way, weaving together the complexities of the world.

The film is both a record of the researchers’ activities and a time to take you on a new journey. And by adding "#manazashi" to the images you conjure up, the film will also open up to other possibilities…

The "#manazashi" is a fragment of footage documenting a process of trial and error, which is never fully completed. It is also a ‘site’ of expression, as if the process of thinking about how to look at these fragmentary images is also part of the work.

This film is a ‘site’ related to ‘human life itself’ that does not converge towards a conclusion.