Gaspard Kuentz & Yasuhiro Morinaga

Having studied at the Eiga Bigakko Film School in Tokyo, Gaspard Kuentz made his first documentary, We Don’t Care About Music Anyway…, on the improvised music scene. Since then, Kuentz, who has a deep personal knowledge of Japan and eastern Asia, has developed experimental documentaries that mix visual anthropology with fiction. Kings of the Wind & Electric Queens, a thrilling immersion into the Sonepur cattle fair in India, won the Best Mid-Length Documentary Award at the 2014 Hot Docs International Documentary Festival in Toronto. UZU, a short film on the violent physical experience of the Dogo religious festival in Japan, has been screened at multiple festivals worldwide, including the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA) and Visions du Réel in Nyon.

Yasuhiro Morinaga has worked on numerous projects in music, film, contemporary dance, art and sound design. He makes field recordings of traditional music and religious ceremonies in rural areas of Japan and Southeast Asia, which he then incorporates into his own musical practice, as well as installations and albums released on his Concrete label. His collaborations have been shown at the Cannes, Venice and Berlin festivals. His 2016 Marginal Gongs performance is based on an extensive study of the gong in Southeast Asia.

“We live in the mountains under a narrow band of sky. I climbed the tallest mountain and saw that the sky goes on for ever. I asked my grandmother: “Grandmother, did you know that the sky goes on for ever?” Do you know what she replied? “Don’t talk rubbish!”

This memory is recounted by 69-year-old K.K., a yakuza who in 2012 was sentenced to 19 years in prison. From an isolated childhood in the mountains of Shikoku to Ōsaka’s criminal gangs and a jail cell, he has come through a world of suffering, not once looking back. SAHA traces the history of a marginalised Japan, stifled by discrimination.

SAHA / Le monde de souffrance de Gaspard Kuenttz et Yasuhiro Morinaga

©Jingumae Produce, 2017