The livelihood and culture in this region revolves all around the irresistible mystery of an endless maze of underwater caves. In a cinema (the Former Omiya Civic Hall) that is about to quietly lay down its office against the backdrop of an increasingly busy society, the film, like a gentle beam of light, amply projects the way we ”just simply exist.”
Summary
Cenotes are natural sinkholes in caves in the northern part of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. They are at once places where sacrifices used to me made during ritual prayers for rain, the only water source in the age of the Mayan civilization. The film juxtaposes various people’s past and present memories related to the cenotes, which were believed to be connecting this world to the underworld. The words we hear are those of the Maya people that have been handed down as the “voices of spirits” or in the form of dialogues in traditional native drama. The floating camerawork above and under the water results in a mixture of fascinating images of light and darkness that seem to echo distant memories.
Details (Ts’onot/Cenote)
Directed by ODA Kaori
2019 / Mexico, Japan
75 min / Mayan language & Spanish / Japanese subtitles
Distributed by sleepin films
Also showing the short film OUR CINEMAS by ODA Kaori.
Film screenings at the festival’s main venue generally open with Oda Kaori’s short film OUR CINEMAS.
In reference to the festival’s general theme “we,” signboards reading ”Our Cinema” are (by pure coincidence) put up at the venue. Oda Kaori’s film OUR CINEMAS portrays relationships between people and cinemas like faint and fleeting memories, and here it works very much in concert with the venue (the Former Omiya Civic Hall), where screenings used to be done in the past as well.
OUR CINEMAS (Oda Kaori / 2018-2020) ©FieldRain LLC
Details (OUR CINEMAS)
Directed by ODA Kaori
2018-2020 / Japan
3 min 48 sec / no dialogues / Japanese subtitles
Distributed by FieldRain.
Screening Schedule
October 15（Sun）13:00〜
October 19（Thu）13:00〜
November 16（Thu）13:00〜
November 17（Fri）18:15〜
Numbered tickets for all screenings are distributed at the main venue’s reception desk from 10:00 AM on the respective day.
Visitors will be admitted in the order of ticket numbers, seating is free.
- Visitors to each screening admitted by rotation
- Doors open 30 min. before the start of the program
- To attend this event, you will be asked to present your ticket for the main venue (1-Day Ticket or Festival Pass).
- The short film OUR CINEMAS (ODA Kaori, 3 min 48 sec) is shown prior to the start of the main program.
- This performance will be staged inside an exhibition space. Please be aware that there will be other visitors walking around at the exhibition.
