Makino Takashi: Entering a Noisy Cosmos

Makino Takashi in person from Japan! 

Among Japan’s most prolific and adventurous filmmakers, Takashi Makino is known for hallucinatory, non-linear films that harness techniques from the twin media of film and video, treating both image and sound with equal importance. “Makino Takashi’s immersive live media experiences are a transcendence into ‘physical unconsciousness.’ Hallucinatory and experiential, Takashi creates abstract cinematic worlds immersing the viewer like a grain of emulsion free falling in the corporeality of image forming materials” (Unconscious Archives, London). Often described as being at the forefront of Japanese experimental filmmaking, Takashi himself generally shies from the term “experimental.” Rather, his influences include the multiple exposure techniques of 1920s French Surrealist films and a near-death experience at the age of five during which he envisioned “a place filled with lights more brilliant than any image I had ever seen.” Takashi’s work evolves as he attempts to find the ideal film, “an unshaped, organic, lump-like film that links with the consciousness and mental state of the viewers…and never ceases to change.”

He presents Space Noise 3D, an immersive live cinema work for 16mm and video projectors, live soundtrack, and 3D glasses, giving a physical presence to the images beyond the screen. The work is preceded by three short films, two featuring the music of Jim O’Rourke.  Cinema and live performance that will fill your senses. 

Total 96 minutes + intermission.

Tickets: $10 general admission; $6 students (with ID)/seniors; free for Filmforum members.

Tickets available in advance at http://bpt.me/882431

For more event information: www.lafilmforum.org, or 323-377-7238

Thank you to The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles, for their support to make this screening possible.  Special Thanks to Mia Ferm, Cinema Project, Portland OR; Steve Polta, San Francisco Cinematheque; and Steve Anker, Cal Arts.

Makino Takashi is an experimental filmmaker who lives and works in Tokyo. He creates and exhibits films that make full use of all film and video techniques, treating the image and the music as elements of equal importance. In 2001, after graduating from the Cinema Department of Nihon University College of Art, Makino moved to London to study music and lighting design at the atelier of the Brothers Quay. Makino continued to make films after returning to Japan and has held solo screenings regularly since 2004. He met Jim O’Rourke in 2005, which accelerated his filmmaking pace. His film, No is E won the Terayama Shuji Prize at the Image Forum Festival 2007. Makino was prominently featured at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2008, where Elements of Nothing was nominated for the Tiger Award. Since then his films have been invited for screenings at more than 30 international film festivals and video art festivals. In 2009, still in cosmos won the Grand-Prix at the 25FPS International Experimental Film & Video Festival 2009.

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This program is supported by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque. We also depend on our members, ticket buyers, and individual donors.

Coming Soon to Los Angeles Filmforum:

Oct 25 – The Chelsea Girls, by Warhol, at REDCAT

Oct 26 – Songs from the Nickel

Nov 2 – Melika Bass