Conversations Before Sunrise, 2018. Video, 8:09 minutes.
The filmmaker’s grandmother was born in 1924, in Kagoshima, Japan, and just 21 years old by the end of WWII. In order to survive and pursue a simple and peaceful life, she has always worked, moved on, resituated, and adjusted herself to a rapidly changing Japanese society. She endured through Japanʼs loss and pain from the war and the many major natural disasters that have hit Japan over the years. Thus, this hybrid art video explores both a personal memory and unforgettable historical events of Japan from the past century, based on the perspective of the filmmaker’s grandmother. It is meant to give us a greater appreciation for a simple kind of life, and organic insights and connections to the very real events we collectively and detachedly view as history.