Takahiko Iimura - Experiments in New York

IN THE DVD:
- New York Scenes, 1967, 10min. color & b/w
- New York Hot Springs, 1984, 11min. b/w
- Talking in New York, 1981, 8min. b/w

The first, "New York Scenes," 1967, is sketches of certain scenes and portraits of the filmmaker's friends and other people. It is divided into five "chapters" including, a famous filmmaker, Jack Smith with his film "Flaming Creatures." The film is made with one scene per chapter, and the chapters are "Linda with a lens," "Jack Smith with his film "Flaming Creatures," "Fire hydrants on Broadway," "Akiko on the roof," and "A Hippy in the Central Park."

The second film, "New York Hot Springs," 1984, was made with the steam coming out of manholes, a typical scene in the winter on the streets of New York,which reminded him of the Japanese hot springs in volcanic mountains. Consisting of shots of various steam at 10 locations in the city, the film is edited with each shot (5 seconds) in successive order and is rotated 10 times. A kind of Structural Film you might say. Since the form of the steam changes every moment, you are looking at new steam even at the same location.

The third film, "Talking in New York," 1981, is a kind of first person cinema where iimura is the cameraman as well as the actor. Acting like a total stranger in the city who does not speak or hear the language, he walks with a camera to such sight-seeing spots as Times Square,and the top of the Empire State building, etc., only listening to himself speaking the words: "I hear myself at the same time that I speak" in two languages: Japanese and English.The words are a quotation from the book by Jacques Derrida, French philosopher, which he calls "phenomenological essence."