This film occupies a special place in my life of making films. Usuzumi no sakura is the proper name of a cherry tree in a mountain village called Neomura in Gifu Prefecture. This tree is not just any tree. They say it is over 1,200 years old - the oldest tree in Japan. I encountered it by chance in the spring of 1969. It seemed like there was a bewitching atmosphere enveloping the tree’s surroundings. The thought that “With this tree, and this tree only, I could make a movie,” suddenly stole inside my head. Two years later, selecting my younger sister as a partner, I thought I would try using her poems similar to a small piece of music that sang praise of the cherry tree. However, she soon fell sick - it was cancer - and died exactly one year later. The initial plan, in which I had thought it would be a short, musical kind of work, soon disappeared after her death and I became strongly drawn to the bewitching atmosphere of the cherry tree. While conversing with the tree, I tried to freeze its appearance in each of the four seasons. As I made this film, I thought that “it’s alright if no one sees it. I’ll just make what I want as I please.” For someone like me who had spent years making films as products for Iwanami Productions, this became an act of searching for myself. (Sumiko Haneda, edited)
Sumiko Haneda is een van Japans meest prominente documentaire filmmakers en een van de weinige vrouwen die er werkzaam waren in non-fictie cinema tijdens de naoorlogse periode. Haneda, geboren in 1926 in Dalian, China (dan Mantsjoerije), begon in 1949 te werken voor Iwanami Productions, een bedrijf dat promotie- en educatieve films uitbracht. Ze maakte er films over de kunsten, onderwijs en de natuur. In 1976 regisseerde ze haar eerste onafhankelijke film, Usuzumi no sakura (The Cherry Tree with Gray Blossoms), een persoonlijk project waar ze vele jaren aan had gewerkt. Ze zou nog meer dan 80 kort- en langspeelfilms regisseren.
Introduced by Ricardo Matos Cabo
With thanks to Kanatasha, Inc. and Haneda Sumiko
With the support of the Japan Foundation
In collaboration with Open City Documentary Festival London
Japanese spoken, English subtitles
