Japanese experimental film and video archive

Eiga Arts‘ (1999-2000) was a series of experimental/avant-garde film and video exhibitions I curated while living in Japan. During this period, Eiga Arts acted as an exchange between Japanese and other international film and video artists. Exhibitions were held monthly in Saga city during 1999, including a publicly sponsored two-day film festival with invited Japanese and American film artists (1999). The festival subsequently toured film venues throughout Japan and a selection were invited for presentation at the Rotterdam International Film Festival (2000). A further two touring exhibitions of contemporary Japanese experimental film were curated for venues in Europe and the USA (2000), including the LUX, London, Pacific Film Archives, Berkley, and the Robert Beck Memorial Cinema, NYC.

A rich archive of documentation, brochures and correspondence is available to researchers of Japanese avant-garde and amateur film. Some of the material is certainly unique and very difficult to come by outside of Japan. Please contact me if you would like to use or even take responsibility for this material.

Video, Film and Performance 1998-2000

Thinking and Bathing, VHS, Sound, 9 minutes, 1998. About the impossibility of knowing another person. 

Heat and Noise, VHS, Sound, 13 minutes, 1998. A day with the KKK. 

WAKATTA, VHS, Sound, 4 minutes, 1998. WAKATTA is about the impossibility of knowing. 

D.I.Y, Super 8mm, Sound, 10 minutes, 1999. I wanted to make a home movie, or rather, I wanted to make a ‘home’. D.I.Y. is a ‘home movie’ in the literal sense too. It was shot, processed and edited in and around my house. Most of the shots are external and the brief time I went inside resulted in a confused, almost violent scene of domesticity. 

Worn Out, Super 8mm, Silent, 3 minutes, 1999. A performance/portrait of myself left to chance. 

Jo Likes to Sleep but Joss Likes To Listen to Music in The Morning, Super 8mm, Silent, 3 minutes, 1999. 

Jo Likes to Eat Slowly but Joss Likes to Eat Quickly, Super 8mm, Silent, 3 minutes, 1999. 

Sadness : A song of the Sea in a minor key, Super 8mm, Silent, 3 minutes, 1999. 

These Are the Views I Can Recall, Super 8mm, Silent, 10 minutes, 1999. 

Mum and Dad Use A Window, Super 8mm, Silent, 3 minutes, 1999. 

For Dad: Movements That We Missed, Super 8mm, Silent, 8 minutes, 2000. 

If You Go To Okinawa, Head North, 16mm, Silent, 6 minutes, 2000.