Ascent – cinema version
2016
80 min.
'A photo-film, a story of memory and grief through photographic steps in time, set against the permanence of a mountain.' - Ben Harman
'The beautiful and mysterious Mount Fuji is the site for an adventure of the imagination for a western female writer and her soulful male Japanese correspondent. We go on a metaphorical journey with them up the mountain, crossing geographical, temporal and cultural divides. Employing a collection of dazzlingly varied still images spanning the history of photography, the mountain becomes a breathtaking cultural monolith, inspiring the writer to uncover different paths and to muse on the significance of its dominant presence in Japanese history, religion and philosophy. By combining fiction and documentary, the film is able to explore the intersections between Japanese and western art and popular culture, from Van Gogh's passion to the perspectival simplicity of Japanese designs to Hokusai's woodblock print of 'The Wave'. Evoking both the insight and lyricism of Chris Marker's Sans Soleil and emotional complexity of Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour, Fiona Tan's wonderful film captures the paradox of existing in time and space without movement. Profound stillness.' - Helen de Witt
Credits
With Hiroki Hasegawa and Fiona Tan
Produced by: Antithesis Films
Forthcoming screenings
23 February 2018
Visite, Het Bos, Antwerpen
10-17 March 2018
Filmmor International Women’s Film Festival, Istanbul
12-15 April 2018
CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival, Bellingham, WA
Screened at
Locarno Film Festival 2016 (World premiere)
Nominated for International Competition, Mostra Sào Paulo 2016
Nominated for International Competition, Porto Film & Media Festival 2016
Nominated for International Competition, Aumur Autumn Film Festival 2017
Nominated for Directors’ Forum, Netherlands Film Festival 2017
Selected for London Film Festival 2016
Selected for Art on Screen, Getty Center, Los Angeles 2017
Selected for International Film Festival Rotterdam 2017
Selected for Göteborg Film Festival 2017
Selected for Doc Fortnight, Moma, New York 2017
Selected for International Women’s Film Festival, Créteil 2017
Selected for Documenta Madrid 2017
Selected for Fotofestiwal Łódź, Poland 2017
Selected for Image Forum Festival, Japan 2017
Selected for Trento Film Festval, Italy 2017
Selected for Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Czech Republic 2017
Selected for Manchester Home Cinema 2017
Screened at Film Forum, New York 2017
Selected for Lima Independiente International Film Festival, Peru 2017
Selected for International Women’s Film Festival, Istanbul 2018
Brief synopsis
Through a grey blanket of cloud the contours of a mountain can be barely discerned. This is Mount Fuji, a volcano with many faces and of immeasurable cultural and symbolic significance. We are lead through the film by the voices of two fictitious characters – Mary, an English woman and her deceased Japanese partner, Hiroshi. Mary receives a parcel containing letters and a collection of photographs from Hiroshi. His letters, in which he describes climbing Mount Fuji, trigger in her mind a train of thoughts and reflections. The photographs we discover together with Mary.
4,500 exceptional and diverse photographs from the past 150 years form the basis for this film. Many images are of undeniably breathtaking beauty – ranging from early examples of nineteenth century Japanese studio photography to military propaganda photos from the thirties, from victorious American press images to amateur snapshots across several decades. This work has for me to do with visibility and invisibility, with distance and proximity. These thousands of images enshroud the mountain like a cloud, revealing and hiding it at the same time.
Ascent is in essence a film made entirely with stills; a filmic experiment balancing delicately between documentary and fiction. As the narrative unfolds unexpected and surprising paths are explored. Together with the two protagonists the viewer climbs Mount Fuji across geographical, temporal and cultural divides. The woodblock prints of Hokusai are considered, but also paintings by Van Gogh, philosophical views stemming from Asian philosophy, mankind’s connection to landscape, Mount Fuji’s religious significance, recent Japanese history. But central throughout is the filmmaker’s own questioning about the nature of photography and how it is possible to create cinema using only found images and without movement.