MOVOP Animation Screenings & Exhibition

 

MOVOP is a collective of young animators under 30 who want to re-evaluate contemporary animation practices. The members of the collective include Fukumi NAKAZAWA (中澤ふくみ), Lina MACHIDA (まちだりな), Nana KAWABATA (川畑 那奈), Riku TAKAHASHI (高橋李空) / DOKUZEN, MARU AKARI, Hiroki KURASAWA (倉澤 紘己), and Aiko OKAMURA (岡村 あい子). 

 MOVOP is a neologism combing the English expressions ‘move up’ (上にあがる) and ‘move on’ (進む) and the Czech word ‘potok’ meaning brook or stream (小川). The letter ‘O’ between the letters M/V/P is also meant to evoke the gaps between frames that create the illusion of movement in animation.

The collective seems to be pushing back against the trend for animation to be completely online and digital. In their declaration, they talk about making things with their own hands and to create an archive of their works in physical form. They also want to create real spaces for young animators to engage in debate and discussions about animation practices with their peers.

In November, they published the inaugural edition of their e-zine on their website. I first heard about MOVOP because of physical postcards and flyers their distributed at the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival in November. The first weekend of March, MOVOP will be holding their first screenings and exhibition at Digiti Minimi and co-hosted by Tampen. 

Program A 

 Kukkiri to Boyata / くっきりとぼやけた 

 dir. Lina MACHIDA / まちだリな, 5’23”, 2024 New work! 

 w_lk 

dir. Riku TAKAHASHI / 高橋李空 / DOKUZEN, 2’58” 

 The Day It was an Excursion / えんそくだったひ 

 dir. Hiroki KURASAWA / 倉澤紘己, 5’49”, 2023 

 Deforming after Transforming (変形して奇形する) 

 dir. Fukumi NAKAZAWA / 中澤ふくみ , 8’47”, 2021 

 lier 

dir. MARU AKARI, 1’, 2024　New work! 

 The Ship of Synapse 

Riku TAKAHASHI / 高橋李空 / DOKUZEN, 2’, 2023 

 Weather Map 

dir. Nana KAWABATA / 川畑那奈 ,9’09", 2021

Program B 

Mimimi and the Aliens (みみみとうちゅうじん) 

dir. Hiroki KURASAWA / 倉澤紘己, 5’55”, 2024　New work! 

 kagra 

dir. Riku TAKAHASHI /高橋李空 / DOKUZEN, 2’58” 

 melt 

dir. MARU AKARI, 30”, 2020-2023 

 Carrots Don’t Wait (ニンジンは待ってくれない / Ninjin wa Matte kurenai) 

dir. Lina MACHIDA / まちだリな, 7’36”, 2023

 The Point of Permanence (永久点 / Towa-ten) 

dir. Nana KAWABATA / 川畑那奈, 10’04”, 2024 New work! 

 #_ hashtag underber 

dir. MARU AKARI, 6’, 2022 

 Exhibition 

Aiko OKAMURA (岡村あい子) 

Yume-utsutsu 『夢現』 

Jiga『自我』　New work! 

Fukumi NAKAZAWA (中澤ふくみ) 

Kandokoro wo Zurasu『勘どころをずらす』　New work! 

New work! Tadaka ga Yonde iru『ただかが呼んでいる』 

On the Saturday at 14:00 there will be a Guest Talk Event with Yū ISEKI (井関悠), the curator of the Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, artist Hirotoshi IWASAKI (岩崎博俊), and dancer / choreographer Nobunashi KON (のばなしコン). On Sunday at 14:00 there will be a Talk Event with member of MOVOP.

Tickets are available via the Peatix app: 

https://movop-event.peatix.com/view  

 For more information visit the MOVOP website / social media: https://movopanimation5.wordpress.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/movop_ 

https://twitter.com/movop_

Cathy Munroe Hotes

Transience – The Best of Recent Indie Animation

Transience – The Best of Recent Indie Animation
Nippon Connection
Saturday, June 1, 2019
14:15 in the Naxoshalle Kino
learn more

My animated shorts selection will be on Saturday at Nippon Connection this year instead of Sunday. This year’s selection features a couple of non-Japanese names. The Czech animator Vojtěch Domlátil, who works at the Jiří Barta studio in Pilsen, had a 2-month art residency at Youkobo Art Space in Tokyo in 2017. His work Fleeting Autumn, which he describes as “a collection of audio-visual haiku poems” was made during this residency. The Oscar-nominated stop motion animation Negative Space is co-directed by the Japanese-American animation team Ru Kuwahata and her husband Max Porter. Both of them studied animation in the Netherlands and the U.S. and the film is funded by a French studio.

The rest of the programme features a diverse range of animation styles from innovative Japanese artists. Some are already established in their careers, and others are just starting out. Every year brings astonishing new works from Japanese artists and it is my pleasure to be able to share some of them with you all again this year.

29 May 2019 Update: animator Ryōji Yamada, who is currently living in Germany, has informed us that he will be able to attend the screening. 

Fleeting Autumn
行く秋 / Yuku Aki
Vojtěch Domlátil /
ヴォイチェヒ・ドムラーチル
2018 / 8’

Hunter
Ryōji YAMADA / 山田遼志
2017, 8’47”

Harmonia featuring Makoto
ハルモニア feat. Makoto
Tarafu OTANI / 大谷 たらふ
2017, 3’49”

Negative Space
Ru KUWAHATA & Max PORTER
2017, 6’

Metamorphose
メタモルフォーゼ
Reiko YOKOSUKA / よこすかれいこ
2018, 3’46”

Shadow Wave
翳浪 / Kagenami
Takumi KATAOKA / 片岡拓海
2018, 5’55”

Water in the Cup
Ikuo KATO / 加藤郁夫
2018, 5’43”

Railment
Shunsaku HAYASHI
2017, 10’

Broke For Free – “Makin’ Moves”
Kohei NAKAMA
2017, 2’29”

A Snowflake into the Night
夜になった雪のはなし
Yoru ni natta Yuki no Hanashi
Yoko YUKI / 幸洋子
2018, 6’

Anywhere
何処かへ。/ Dokoka he.
Lyota TAKAHASHI / 高橋良太
2018, 6’55”

A Branch of a Pine is Tied Up
松が枝を結び / Matsuga Edawo Musubi
Tomoyasu MURATA / 村田朋泰
2017, 17’

2019 Catherine Munroe Hotes

GAKI Biwa hōshi (GAKI琵琶法師, 2005)

In feudal Japan, biwa hōshi, “lute masters” or “lute priests”, were travelling performers who earned their living performing vocal literature with the accompaniment of biwa music.  The biwa is a Japanese short-necked, fretted lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling.   Biwa hōshi were often blind and wore robes and had shaved heads in a similar style to that of Buddhist monks.  The style of their musical performance is known as heikyoku (平曲 / Heike music) as the biwa hōshi are believed to have been the first performers of the Japanese epic story The Tale of the Heike (平家物語 / Heike Monogatari, c. 1180-1185). 

Reiko Yokosuka’s 2005 ink brush (sumi-e) animation GAKI Biwa hōshi (GAKI琵琶法師) depicts the performance of such a biwa hōshi.  However, this is no historical figure but a gaki – a type of ghost or yūrei (幽霊) common in Japanese and East Asian folklore.  Not only is this clear from the title of the film, but Yokosuka’s depiction of the gaki as a bent, elderly figure with a bloated stomach resembles very closely the depiction of of gaki in traditional art (see examples).  According to Japanese Buddhist legends, gaki (hungry ghosts) are the spirits of jealous or greedy people who have been cursed with insatiable hunger for something (often something disgusting) as a punishment for their mortal vices. 

In the Oxford University Press’s Handbook of Japanese Mythology (2008), Michael Ashkenazi describes a myth of such a lute-playing gaki that appears after the defeat of the Taira Clan at Dan-no-Ura (p. 156-157).  I suspect that such a myth must have inspired Yokosuka’s animation.

That being said; however, Yokosuka does not employ a contemporary biwa musician to accompany her film.  Instead, she modernizes the gaki biwa hōshi, transforming his traditional instrument into an electric biwa.  He plugs his instrument into an electricity source and the old fashioned setting of a traditional Japanese house transforms into a modern landscape of electricity poles.  Although the poles are modern, they are painted with in the sumi-e brush painting style used in the depiction of bamboo in traditional art.  To the accompaniment of electronic music by Kenji Konishi (小西健司, b. 1955), also known as Ironbeat, the brush strokes become performers in the animation.

The pika pika of electricity comes alive as a dancing figure on the electricity wire.  We return to the lonely figure of the gaki biwa hōshi for a moment as the sound of wind transforms the brushstrokes of sumi-e paint into a beautiful abstract animation.  The brushstrokes swirl like cloth around a spinning top, they fill the screen with waves as the music crescendos again until we finally return to the gaki musician, worn out by his efforts.  As he sits once again, two little figures like the one dancing on the electricity line bring the hungry ghost some refreshment in the form of a drink and a snack.  "Sigh.  .   ."  a wonderful blend of traditional art and mythology with contemporary art and music. 

You can get a glimpse of the animation in the trailer here.  This animated short screened as part of A Wild Patience – Indie Animated Shorts by Women at Nippon Connection 2016.

Artist: Reiko Yokosuka (横須賀令子)

Offical Website

Nishikata Eiga Profile

2016 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Mutoscope (ミュートスコープ, 2011)

Many animators take an interest in early cinema technologies and often experiment with them.  In fact, their first “animations” are often flip books drawn on the corners of school workbooks.  References to early technologies can be found in many animated films, from Taku Furukawa and Kōji Yamamura’s  experiments with the Phenakistoscope (see: Odorokiban and Omake) to Toshio Iwai’s 3D Zoetropes of Toy Story (made with Gregory Barsamian, who does a lot of art inspired by early animation/cinema) and Bouncing Totoro at the Ghibli Museum Mitaka. 

The animator / artist Hirotoshi Iwasaki (岩崎宏俊, b. 1981), who just this week won the Grand Prix for Non-Narrative Short at HAFF for his latest work Dark Mixer (2014), built a Mutoscope out of iron in 2011.  The Mutoscope is an early cinema device which was patented in 1894 by the American inventor Herman Casler (1867-1939).  Instead of projecting on a screen, the Mutoscope creates the perception of movement in the same way that a flip book does except, rather than being bound like a book, the large cards (7 x 4.75cm) are attached to a circular core.  These were coin operated machines that could be viewed by an individual through a single lens, as the poet Jared Carter describes in his 1993 poem “Penny Arcade”: “The light goes out, the ratchet handle stops, / along the tightrope stretched across the falls / the cards collapse.  Another penny crawls / into the slot.  The light blinks on.  She hops, / she keeps her balance with a parasol /and strikes an hourglass pose.” (read the whole poem)

Mutoscope from Hirotoshi Iwasaki on Vimeo.

Iwasaki’s Mutoscope is a pared down version of the original – just the mechanical structure of the device without it being encased in a coin-operated viewing device.  Instead of the approximately 850 cards used in the original machines, Iwasaki made just 16 images that repeat.  Interestingly, 16 frames per second is the minimum frame rate needed for the phenomenon of persistence of vision to work.  With projected film, anything slower would cause a flicker that soul be distracting to the spectator.  I don’t know if this is why Iwasaki chose 16 frames, but it seems likely. 

According to his official website, he made four sets of 16 images for the device: Phantom, Wave, Moon and Bottom.   The Mutoscope was exhibited as part of his exhibition Invisible Time at Gallery Terra Tokyo from 6 June – 23 July 2011.  The event description reads:

“Iwasaki constantly tries to turn invisible existence - time, space and memory - into perceivable objects. He uses moving images to make palpable what was formerly invisible, transcending language barriers and producing a poetic atmosphere. This exhibition showcases works that focus on the theme of “time” - in our memory, in a mirror, at the bottom of a well.”  (Source: TAB)  Footage of Phantom and Wave in action can be seen on Iwasaki’s Vimeo and Youtube channels.

2015 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Makoto Wada’s Movie Inspired Art 4: Modern Classics

Makoto Wada (和田誠, b. 1936) is best known as an illustrator whose work has adorned the pages of writers as diverse as Shinichi Hoshi, Haruki Murakami, and Agatha Christie.  In addition to illustration, he has also dabbled in film directing and animation – winning the Noburo Ofuji Award for 1964 for his comic animated short Murder (殺人).  In Murder, he spoofs a wide variety of famous film and literary icons including Poirot, Sam Spade, Dracula and James Bond.  He has also done a range of paintings inspired by film stars and classic movies.  This is my third in a series of posts looking at his art and his muses.  See also: Part 1: Early Hollywood,  Part 2: Hollywood Classics, and Part 3: European Classics.

You can support this artist by ordering collections of his work such as:

Order: Makoto Wada Cinema Art

Life is Beautiful (1997) put Italian comedian Roberto Benigni on the Hollywood map when he won not only the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film but also the  Best Actor Oscar.  Wada's painting captures the essence of this tragicomic film: the resilience of the human spirit in even the most desperate of circumstances, seen here through the love of two parents for their young son.  

Luc Besson's Léon: The Professional (1994) was written as a star vehicle for Jean Reno, hence the title, but what most people remember is the unlikely friendship that develops between Léon and the teenage girl Mathilda (Nathalie Portman).  

In this painting Wada brings together two seminal moments in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993): the girl in the red coat and Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) and his employee Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) writing the famous list of Jews that they hoped to save from the Nazis.  

Wada's take on the movie poster for Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire (1987) captures the contemplative gaze of  the angel Damiel (Bruno Ganz) as he sits on the Victory Column (Siegesäule) looking out over the divided city of Berlin.  Although the body positioning of Solveig Dommartin as Marion is different than in the poster, she does make that pose during her acrobatics in the film itself.

Next: Makoto Wada's Movie Inspired Art 5: Hitchcock

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2015

Makoto Wada’s Movie Inspired Art 3: European Classics

Makoto Wada (和田誠, b. 1936) is best known as an illustrator whose work has adorned the pages of writers as diverse as Shinichi Hoshi, Haruki Murakami, and Agatha Christie.  In addition to illustration, he has also dabbled in film directing and animation – winning the Noburo Ofuji Award for 1964 for his comic animated short Murder (殺人).  In Murder, he spoofs a wide variety of famous film and literary icons including Poirot, Sam Spade, Dracula and James Bond.  He has also done a range of paintings inspired by film stars and classic movies.  This is my third in a series of posts looking at his art and his muses.  See also: Part 1: Early Hollywood and Part 2: Hollywood Classics

You can support this artist by ordering collections of his work such as:

Order: Makoto Wada Cinema Art

In November 2011, Makoto Wada held an exhibition entitled "World of European Films" 「ヨーロッパ映画の世界」at the  Dojima Avanza Entrance Hall in his native Osaka.  According to Kansai Art Beat, the exhibition featured paintings inspired by everything from the popular Harry Potter film adaptions to art cinema classics like Fellini's La Strada (1954).

One of the images used to promote the film was a striking image of Sean Connery as James Bond against a red background.

I believe this studio photo of Connery was used for the promotion of Goldfinger (1964).  

One of my favourites from Makoto's European film series is his rendering of the unforgettable moment from Godard's Breathless when Jean Seberg, in her Herald Tribute T-shirt kisses Jean-Paul Belmondo on the cheek:

The yellow background suits the mood of Breathless, I think, and Wada has captured the body language of the two protagonists perfectly.  Less successful, in my opinion, is Wada's rendering of Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948):

Yes, this is one of the classic stills from the movie, but the adaptation lacks finesse.  Wada's body proportions for the ballet dancer Vicky Page are all wrong.  Actress Moira Shearer was much more delicately proportioned than that, and her nose was quite dainty in real life.  Wada makes her look more like one of Cinderella's evil stepsisters. 

In contrast, Wada's interpretation of Albert Lamorisse's fantasy featurette The Red Balloon (1956) is spot on in its use of colour and design.  

Next: Makoto Wada's Movie Inspired Art 4: Modern Classics

2015 Catherine Munroe Hotes

Japan in Germany 13: Eine Fotoreise durch das alte Japan (1985)

Eine Fotoreise durch das alte Japan (A Photographic Journey through Old Japan) was published by Harenberg in 1985.  The author, Ludwig Hoerner (b. 1919), claims that the photographs were taken by an unknown European traveller to Japan in the late 19^th century.  The 70 hand-tinted black and white photographs are from the author’s own collection and from the Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek (the public library of Lower Saxony), known today as the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek (GWLB) after the 17^th century polymath and philosopher whose manuscripts and correspondence are held in their archive.  Ingrid Siegmund-Rux wrote an afterword to the book that provides readers with the historical context of the rapid modernisation of Japan during the Meiji Era.

Hoerner is an autodidactic researcher and author with a passion for 19^th century photography: both the photographs themselves and the history of the photographic industry.  He has published a number of books on the subject, most notably Das photographische Gewerbe in Deutschland 1839–1914 (The Photographic Industry in Germany, 1839-1914, GFW-Verlag, 1989).  At the time of the book’s publication, Ingrid Siegmund-Rux appears to have been a librarian.  I have found little biographical information about her online apart from the minutes of the European Association of Sinological Librarians annual conference in 1986, which lists her as representing the Universitätsbibliothek und Technische Informationsbibliothek  Hannover (German National Library of Science and Technology / University Library Hannover).  

Most of the photographs in this collection were taken in and around Tokyo and Yokohama including tourist destinations for Tokyoites such as Mt. Fuji, Nikko and Hakone.  There are a few images from Kansai (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Lake Biwa), as well as images of Nagoya, Nagasaki, and Tomioka (a ghost town today as it is the epicentre of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear disaster).  There are also a large number of posed photographs clearly designed to educate Europeans about the customs of Japan (tea ceremony, music and dance, ikebana, etc) and the occupations of people from all strata of Japanese society (silk traders, acrobats, a pipe-maker, sumo wrestlers, a shoemaker, a Buddhist priest, samurai, etc.).

Here are some of the highlights (clock on photos to view larger / as a slideshow):

Cover of one of Hoerner's photo albums

Yokohama/Mississippi Bay

Theatre in Yokohama

Tokyo

Hakone

Tomioka, Fukushima

Girls having a party - the author is amused by the girl in the middle with the bowler hat

travelling gardeners

This book is out of print and can be ordered from second hand bookstores.

2015 Cathy Munroe Hotes 

Makoto Wada’s Movie Inspired Art 2: Hollywood Classics

Makoto Wada (和田誠, b. 1936) is best known as an illustrator whose work has adorned the pages of writers as diverse as Shinichi Hoshi, Haruki Murakami, and Agatha Christie.  In addition to illustration, he has also dabbled in film directing and animation – winning the Noburo Ofuji Award for 1964 for his comic animated short Murder (殺人).  In Murder, he spoofs a wide variety of famous film and literary icons including Poirot, Sam Spade, Dracula and James Bond.  He has also done a range of paintings inspired by film stars and classic movies.  This is my second in a series of posts looking at his art and his cinematic muses.  See: Part 1: Early Hollywood.

You can support this artist by ordering collections of his work such as:

Order: Makoto Wada Cinema Art

This image of Marilyn Monroe is not from a movie, but it is one of the iconic images of the more personal side of Marilyn that the press rarely saw in the 1950s.  Instead of looking all glammed up, Marilyn is dressed in a modest bathing suit and is reading from her copy of James Joyce's modernist novel Ulysses (1922).  The photo was taken by Eve Arden in 1954 on Long Island where Monroe was visiting her friend the poet Norman Rosten.   I find it interesting that Wada has chosen to partially obscure Marilyn's face, yet she is still instantly recognizable by her trademark hair and mole.  The boldly coloured bathing suit doubtless appealed to Wada's eye for colour, and the blue background matches her beautiful blue eyes.  

Audrey Hepburn embodied Hollywood glamour in the adaptation of Truman Capote's novel Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).  Hepburn shines like a ray of light in a black space in Wada's portrait of her.   

In the neo-noir film L.A. confidential Kim Basinger embodied Hollywood elegance of the Golden Era.  I love how Mada makes the black and white of her cloak pop by giving her such a dramatic colour for the background.  

Although this image has all the key elements (costume, chair) to make Liza Minnelli in Bob Fosse's Caberet (1972) recognizable, I think this is one of Wada's less successful homages.   He makes the character of Sally Bowles more kawaii than erotic.  It's a lovely image but it misses the mark for me.  

Bernardo Bertolucci may be a European director, but his epic The Last Emperor was a large scale Hollywood production with an international cast.  Winning 9 Oscars at the 60th Academy Awards, it was certainly the film of 1987.  I like how Wada pares the iconic film poster down to its key elements: the boy emperor Puyi and his castle.  If you haven't seen the film, you should, if only for the amazing Ryuichi Sakamoto / David Byrne / Cong Su soundrack:

Next: Makoto Wada's Movie Inspired Art 3: European Classics

2015 Cathy Munroe Hotes