March 13 at Japan Society // March 14 at Light Industry
Two consecutive evenings in honor of Sumiko Haneda and Paulo Rocha.
Related texts
A Letter to the Tokushima Shimbun by Paulo Rocha
Part I
A Ilha dos Amores (The Island of Love)
dir. Paulo Rocha
1982. 162 min. 4K Restoration.
In Portuguese and Japanese with English subtitles.
March 13, 7pm at Japan Society
Soon after the premiere of his second feature Change of Life (1966), Portuguese filmmaker Paulo Rocha conceived of a film set in Japan. An ambitious clash of worlds, this project would consume the next 14 years of his life, spent traveling, researching, writing, rewriting, and finally, shooting this “perfectly disorienting film” (Serge Daney) between Tokyo and Lisbon. The Island of Loves is a retelling of the life, works, loves and death of Portuguese writer and naval officer Wenceslau de Moraes. Moraes settled in Japan in the early twentieth century, where he was appointed consul for the new Republic of Portugal. There, after resigning his post in grief, Moraes spent his final years in poverty, haunted by past lovers, and eventually died a mysterious death in a remote village. Blending medieval and Japanese theatrical influences, Greco-Roman myth and the ancient poetry of Qu Yuan, Island is, in the words of João Bénard da Costa, “a film without precursors.” Among many Japanese collaborators, Rocha recruited documentarian Sumiko Haneda to write dialogue for the film.
Part II
Hayachine no fu (The Poem of Hayachine Valley)
dir. Sumiko Haneda
1982. 153 min. 16mm.
In Japanese with English subtitles.
March 14 at Light Industry
“For Haneda, the mountain gods, the plastic products in the small shops in the village, the people who dance the kagura, and the tourists are just as passionate and fantastic. Everything is just as important to her non-sentimental gaze. That is, past and future, nature and machinery, mountains and towns. What is art for, what is fiction for, what position does the profilmic material occupy in a movie, what position does fiction occupy in art? What about the artist? What happens to the artists filmed? Rarely in the history of cinema have such essential questions been asked in such a direct, simple, generous, and intelligent way. I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction, but now, after seeing Haneda’s Ode to Mt. Hayachine, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one, we must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth… Centuries from now, when people in the future will want to know what we were like, they will be able to watch The Poem of Hayachine Valley, and the movie will tell them about us, the audience of the film today, and about little-known people who were lost among the mountains, in an unknown valley.” - Paulo Rocha (translated by Matteo Boscarol)
Special thanks to Thomas Beard & Ed Halter (Light Industry), Alexander Fee (Japan Society), Joana de Sousa (Cinemateca Portuguesa), and Akinaru Rokkaku (Japan Foundation).