synopsis
Folk poetry collector Ōtani Masae visits the residents of the mountain village of Ubuyama in southern Japan and collects songs that are over a thousand years old. However, continuity is only an illusion and ancient cultural heritage is subject to fragmentary memory, rewriting and new contexts. Ballads, confessions and prayers are thus not a chronicle of old times, but a liberating manifesto against the patriarchal tradition that for centuries confined women to the solitude of their homes. Lyrically layered on 16mm filmstrip, with the intimacy of a family video and the poetics of a visual essay, the images explore the fragile power of ephemeral detail and the cathartic effect of communication and sharing.
“By making this film, I have been able to discover and be amazed by the transformative power of the Japanese ‘uta’ (‘uta’ meaning song and poem at the same time). Gently, they help loosen iron bonds. They float over Ubuyama-mura’s heavy hetero-patriarchal heritage and its strict, unwritten laws of behaviour.”
Source: Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas
Funded by INJUVE Grant for Contemporary Creation and Grant for contemporary creation and national and international mobility, Madrid City Council.
biography
Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas (1992) is a Spanish visual artist, pedagogue and curator, trained in architecture and audiovisual media. He also deals with Japan in his films Amijima, The Eternal Virgin, Meihōdō, Ubuyama Rushes or Naku: to sing, to cry, which deals with traditional Japanese folk poetry and thus forms a kind of prequel to Summer Songs.more about film
| director: | Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas |
| cast: | Masae Ohtani, Fujiko Yamabe, Fukimi Satoh, Takahiro Satoh, Masahiro Ohtani, Shouji Takahashi, Mikiko Takahashi, Shuuichi I, Mari I, Chikage I, Kinu Adachi |
| producer: | Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas |
| script: | Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas, Masae Ohtani |
| photography: | Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas |
| editing: | Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas |
| sound design: | Pablo Teijón |
| Consultant: | Masae Ohtani |
| production manager: | Masae Ohtani |
contact
Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivasj.suarezquinones@gmail.com
Screening time
Kino Dukla – Edison
Kino Dukla – Reform
Film at festival
| premiere type: | International Premiere |
| festival edition: | 2024 |
| section: | Ji.hlava Online, First Lights |
| language: | English, Spanish, Japanese |
| subtitles: | English |
| colour: | Colour |
Info
| director: | Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas |
| original title: | Natsu no uta |
| country: | Spain, Japan |
| year: | 2024 |
| running time: | 95 min. |
