The final installment of the season of film screenings in conjunction with Japan House London’s exhibitionAinu Stories: Contemporary Lives by the Saru Riverpresents the rare opportunity to watch a selection of three short films by Ainu filmmakers looking at aspects of their culture from different perspectives.

The first two films are short documentaries recorded in the 1990s by Kayano Shirō, son of Kayano Shigeru, one of the latest Ainu native speakers of Nibutani and one of its most prominent figures, remembered for being the first Ainu to be elected to the House of Councillors of the Japanese Diet in 1994 and for ensuring the continued transmission of Ainu cultural heritage.

The third video has been released in 2023 as a project co-created by Ainu artist and scholar Kanako Uzawa and Italian director and photographer Laura Liverani, which investigates and reframes the histories behind ethnographic museum collections in Europe, as seen from an indigenous perspective.

Tonoto Kamuy– A Spirit of Sake, 1992

This film is Kayano Shirō’s first piece of work, which was awarded a prize by the Shimonaka Memorial Foundation. It shows his parents making tonoto, a fermented alcoholic drink made from millet. The film also records a cise nomi, the inauguration of a new house, during which tonoto is sometimes used to bless the new construction.

Japanese with English subtitles. Duration: approx. 21 minutes.

Kotoba wa minzoku no akashi (Language is the Proof of People), 1993

This film documents the process of making a cip, a canoe made and used by Ainu people. Fewer and fewer people know how to build these canoes, since many craftspeople like the men shown at work in the film have passed away and cip are not used in daily life to hunt, fish or travel anymore. To accompany the building process, Kayano includes a recording made in 1967 of an elderly native Ainu speaker reciting a story about a canoe. The film premiered at the Yamagata International Documentary Festival in 1993.

Japanese with English subtitles. Duration: approx. 22 minutes.

Ainupuri, 2023

In this contemporary, conceptual short film, Uzawa Kanako researched the collections and reconstructed the counter-narratives that Ainu objects in the museums embody, in the form of narration, poetry, song, dance, and performance; these personal and collective histories are mediated by Laura Liverani’s visual storytelling, in a constant dialogue between the two artists.

Japanese with English subtitles. Duration: approx. 15 minutes.

The exhibition Ainu Stories: Contemporary Lives by the Saru Riveris on display in the Gallery at Japan House London from 16 November 2023 until 21 April 2024.

Please note that filming and photography may take place at this event. Photos and footage of the event may then be used to promote Japan House London, helping more people to discover what we offer. If you have any concerns, please contact us online or contact a member of the team on site.

Admission Free | Booking Essential