Short of the Week: Kōji Yamamura’s journey to the origin of cinema
While cinema didn’t really start developing its own artistic identity until the early 20th century, it was English photographer Eadweard Muybridge who was among the first pioneers to make images move in the late 1800s. Using animals in motion to translate the passage of time into chronological pictures, Muybridge completely revolutionised our understanding of photography. One of the most interesting explorations of his immense legacy is Muybridge’s Strings, directed by Kōji Yamamura.
Yamamura, a leading figure in Japanese animation who has worked on critically acclaimed gems such as Mount Head, made this tribute in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada, which explains the unique visual style of the project. A collection of vignettes that detail Muybridge’s volatile psychological state during one of the most important moments in the history of cinema, Yamamura’s animated vision is simply striking.
Although Muybridge is primarily remembered for his vital experiments with chronophotography, the event that preceded his artistic journey is unimaginably grim. Yamamura perfectly depicts how the late photographer murdered his wife’s lover (a crime of which he was acquitted on the grounds of “justifiable homicide”), oscillating between those images of violence and the way in which Muybridge “shot” animals to give birth to cinema.
During an interview with Zippy Frames, Yamamura reflected on the narrative subtext and the score for the project: “My personal feeling is of a sad film or atmosphere that comes from the passing of time. One moment of time passes, things change, and you get a little bit sad. But it was also influenced by the Canadian style of filmmaking, and he co-operated a lot with Canadian musicians. I was very happy about their joint performance.”
A dark examination of the history of the medium, Muybridge’s Strings was also influenced by Yamamura’s observations of his wife and children, which shaped his understanding of time. Parallel to Muybridge’s violence, the short portrays the relationship of a mother and daughter who drift apart across a distance that is rendered irreversible by time. These nuanced layers transform the short into a complex study, proving that Yamamura’s art transcends the constraints of the short film format.
In the same interview, the filmmaker added: “When you are independent, there could be problems with funding – it’s not an easy task. But, on the other hand, short animation films can also be under your own control. And I think it’s best to find something that you really want to make, even if you don’t have money. If you can do that, then everything else would be falling into place. When you are working on a commercial sphere, you don’t have the freedom to work on what you would like to work for. Work on things that you really enjoy.”
Watch the film below.
