An island paradise for felines splits the local community
Sneak Preview Screening: The Cats of Gokogu Shrine (Gokogu no Neko)
followed by a Q&A with director Kazuhiro Soda
Thursday, September 12 at 6:00 pm*
*Please note early start time.
In Japanese with English subtitles Japan/USA 2024 119 minutes
Directed by: Kazuhiro Soda
Produced by: Kiyoko Kashiwagi, Kazuhiro Soda
Featuring: Cats, people, and living beings of Ushimado
Film courtesy of Tofoo
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda has taken audiences behind the scenes of election campaigns ("Campaign," "Campaign 2"), mental institutions ("Mental," "Zero"), experimental theaters ("Theatre 1, 2"), seafood processing plants ("Oyster Factory"), even America's largest football stadium ("The Big House") to explore themes confronting modern society everywhere, from spiritual and physical well-being to aging, xenophobia, loss of local traditions and the fracturing of tight-knit communities.
With "The Cats of Gokogu Shrine," his Observational Film #10, he turns the lens on his adopted home, Ushimado, and the many adoptees who provide both pleasure and pain to the island's human residents: the dozens of street cats who make the ancient Shinto shrine their haven. As ever, Soda's plain-spoken approach plumbs hidden depths.
With gentle humor and sudden insight, the film paints a visual portrait of a vanishing way of life, illuminating the "beautiful and harsh, simple yet complex" universe of Gokogu, a small fishing village located on the Seto Inland Sea. In this microcosm, the fraying relationship between humans and nature, as well as the symbiotic relationship between people and cats, is brought into stark relief.
While there has long been local support for Gokogu's felines as they undergo the slow process of extinction, that has gradually changed. The explosion of attention from social media has brought increased tourism to the "Cat Shrine," and thus created even greater conflicts between those who feed the roaming strays, clean the poop and help cage them for neutering, and those who complain that they are a dirty and costly burden on the community.
As Soda notes, "When I observe them, I am so amazed that they are acting according to nature, the natural cycle of this planet. Street cats are part of nature. That is why they are not controllable. And that's why we fear them… We didn't [used to] think we could control everything in this world. But nowadays, human beings, we think of ourselves as Almighty, like we are the rulers of the world." And in Gokogu's minor struggle for control of the uncontrollable, the world's woes are mirrored.
Please join us for this sneak preview of "The Cats of Gokogu Shrine" before the Japan release on October 19, 2024.
For more: https://www.kazuhirosoda.com/cats
Director, producer, cinematographer and editor KAZUHIRO SODA studied religions at the University of Tokyo and filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he made his home for 27 years. A Peabody Award-winning filmmaker who has also received the Marek Nowicki lifetime achievement prize awarded by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, he has made 11 documentaries that have each won numerous awards. Soda practices an observational method of filmmaking based on his own "Ten Commandments," which prohibit him from researching or writing a synopsis before he starts shooting. The self-imposed rules, which have influenced budding filmmakers around the globe, help him minimize preconceptions and make unexpected discoveries while filming and editing. Soda is also the author of nine books published in Japanese, one of which, "Why I Make Documentaries," has been translated into English, Korean, and Chinese.
Please make your reservations at the FCCJ Reception Desk 03- 3211-3161 or register online. All film screenings are private, noncommercial events primarily for FCCJ members and their guests.
- Karen Severns, Film Committee