Islands of Dreams

Dir: Tetsuichiro Tsuta
Cinematographer: Yutaka Aoki

Triggered by a criminal case of blowing off remote-controlled bombs in the mountains, Inspector Terayama begins investigating on serial terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, a youngster who always ponders around the river catches his attention. Later when Terayama figures the youngster is involved in the case, he becomes curious of his background and intention. As the truth unveils itself, Terayama has no choice but performing his police duties regardless of his sympathy for the youngster… Shot on 16mm black-and-white films, all the production procedures, which include shooting, developing, negatives editing, soundtrack negatives production and copy duplication, are done exclusively by the director and his crew. The black-and-white effects have acted as a background on which the story unfolds, adding a distinctive tone of the Japanese New Wave Cinema; while the occasional and intentional mimicking of the early cinema montages have made the film rich and versatile in camera movements. Although the film will not be screened in its original format, the production team has digitised the 16mm print and inserted English subtitles, extending the life of the creative work itself. The film received the Audience Award at the 2019 PIA Film Festival.

Tetsuichiro Tsuta (1984－)
Born in Tokushima prefecture, Tsuta graduated from Department of Imaging Art, Faculty of Arts, Tokyo Polytechnic University. In his university years, he acquired his film developing and editing skills on the basis of celluloid filmmaking. The Tale of Iya (2013), his first feature film upon graduation was shot entirely on 35mm films and later selected in various film festivals both nationally and internationally, garnering a few awards.