Following a five member friend group (Akiro, Samuel, Mara, Eirene, and Malia) as they navigate the sharp turns of early adulthood, the gravity of their emotions, and the loss of something that cannot be left forgotten six feet below the grass.
Isle Be Back - A Love Letter to Arran is a vignette style of short film that shows the life style and visuals of living on The Isle of Arran, a Scottish island with a tight knit community.
A young female server who attempts to return a souvenir left behind by a group of upper-class women, inadvertently reveals her own self-consciousness and inner life, unfolding through a reflective monologue on social status and self-worth.
A boy plays in the sand on a beach. He notices smoke rising from the slag heap of a nearby coal mine. A young woman appears before him and speaks gently to him. In her, he glimpses the image of his deceased mother, though she relates to him like a sister. The next day, he returns to the same spot, waiting patiently for her to reappear, only to find a marble buried in the sand.
A young man drifts through boredom and thoughts of burden and desire, imagining distant ideals and the possibility of escape. Along the coast, he encounters an elusive woman who speaks of fleeting love and the uncertainty of where the wind may carry them.
In the studio of painter Shun Kumashiro, curls of pipe smoke signal the work that is about to unfold. A line is drawn across a blank canvas, as alternating shots of the painter’s face and the surface reveal moments of pause, contemplation, and exuberance. Colours blend on the palette, and the brush moves swiftly across the canvas, forming a piece shaped through the interplay of image and music.
8mm documentary that features the late Yoichi Kojima, a master of Hakata doll making. Produced at a time when the city of Fukuoka was beginning to recover from the ruins of war, the film captures nostalgic scenes of the cityscape, including the Hakata River and the Naka River, and areas around the old Hakata Station.
Through archival materials, the film tells the story of the bond between a man, Vittorio, and a boat, the Riccardo I. Their relationship develops against the backdrop of the profound changes that affected the Adriatic Sea and its coastlines in the twentieth century, marking the end of the ancient civilization of sailing. As a child, Vittorio was a cabin boy on his father's boat; in old age, he feels the need to preserve the world of his childhood. With stubborn determination, he decides to single-handedly restore the Riccardo I, the last vessel of its kind, dedicating himself to this endeavor until his death.
For me, places are people. Venice, tormented, fascinating, mysterious, is Giulio, his blue eyes, his disappearance, his ghost. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of the time his body was beside mine as we explored the island. Venice reawakens my memories with him and gives him back to me. Knowing that he has changed shape, that he no longer wears a human body, drives me to search for him everywhere. Yet I continue to believe in his desperate freedom, in his choice. The emptiness within me after his departure is a space I fill with what I encounter. I know only one way to combat pain: seek wonder. I will continue to do so, now also for him, now also with him.