Like Nothing Happened and Heaven Is Still Far Away
Hamaguchi I & II
April 26 - 30, 2024
This program brings together two medium-length works, made 13 years apart, that foreground Hamaguchi’s long-held ability to zero in on the nuances and pressure points of (mis)communication.
This program brings together two medium-length works, made 13 years apart, that foreground Hamaguchi’s long-held ability to zero in on the nuances and pressure points of performance, identity, and (mis)communication. One of his earliest films, made while he was still a student at the University of Tokyo, Like Nothing Happened (2003, 43m) is an 8mm-shot, unhurried study of conversations, alternatively drifting and revealing, among five young friends (one played by Hamaguchi himself) that revolve around their outing to a horse racetrack. Heaven Is Still Far Away (2016, 38m), by contrast, is a cross between a ghost story and a film about filmmaking that peels back the layers of a relationship formed by absence—a subject Hamaguchi would mine further in Asako I & II and Drive My Car—in which a young loner becomes the reluctant vessel for a documentary filmmaker to commune with her deceased sister.
Please note: Like Nothing Happened is a digital transfer from the 8mm source material and will appear below HD standards.
Read More
Kamal Aljafari on With Hasan in Gaza and ‘The Camera of the Dispossessed’
Our 63rd New York Film Festival Talks featured a special conversation with With Hasan in Gaza director Kamal Aljafari, moderated by Film Comment editor Devika Girish.
Lucrecia Martel on Our Land (Nuestra Tierra), the Filmmaker’s First Feature Documentary
On the latest episode of FLC Luminaries, our video series that spotlights talent at all levels of the filmmaking process who uplift the art and craft of cinema, Our Land (Nuestra Tierra) director Lucrecia Martel discusses her expansive and enlightening first feature documentary.
Carla Simón on Her Poignantly Autobiographical Romería
This week we’re excited to present a conversation from the 63rd New York Film Festival with Romería director Carla Simón, moderated by NYFF Main Slate selection committee member Florence Almozini.
