Takashi Ito: Animating Spirits

Japanese film wizard Takashi Ito is rightfully considered one of the most unique and thrilling practitioners of experimental cinema over the last few decades, and his 16mm films routinely leave audiences awestruck. Utilizing a combination of extraordinary in-camera animation techniques and inspired photographic alchemy, Ito harnesses the fundamental processes of cinema with his visionary and technically astonishing analog methods to create films that re-fashion reality and conjure the impossible.

This extremely rare program of films by Ito features a wide range of his astonishing shorts, including ecstatic photo animations, ghostly apparitions, and ruminations on family and individuality, all screening in 16mm prints flown in from Japan just for this program.

Programmed and note by Academy Film Archive Senior Film Preservationist Mark Toscano.

This film may trigger seizures for visitors with photosensitive epilepsy. Please use your discretion when viewing.

All films directed by Takashi Ito unless otherwise noted. All films courtesy of Image Forum, Tokyo. Special thanks to Takashi Ito and Koyo Yamashita.

Total program runtime: 83 min.

Spacy
1981. 10 min. Japan. Color. Sound. 16mm.

Box
1982. 8 min. Japan. Color. Sound. 16mm.

Thunder
1982. 5 min. Japan. Color. Sound. 16mm.

Devil’s Circuit (悪魔の回路図)
1988. 8 min. Japan. Color. Sound. 16mm.

The Mummy’s Dream (ミイラの夢)
1989. 6 min. Japan. B&W. Silent. 16mm.

Wall
1987. 7 min. Japan. Color. Sound. 16mm.

Apparatus M (ギ·装置Ｍ / Gi-Souchi M)
DIRECTED BY: Takashi Ito; produced & performed by Yasumasa Morimura. 1996. 6 min. Japan. Color. Silent. 16mm.

Venus (ビーナス)
1990. 6 min. Japan. Color. Silent. 16mm.

Grim
1985. 8 min. Japan. Color. Sound. 16mm.

The Moon
1994. 7 min. Japan. Color. Sound. 16mm.

Zone
1995. 12 min. Japan. Color. Sound. 16mm.

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.

Explore our current quarterly print Film Calendar and browse the archive.

Theater accessibility accommodations available upon request. Learn more about our accessibility initiatives.

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