"Hibi AUG"
Director, Photography, Editing, Sound: Maeda Shinjiro
JAPAN / 2022 / Japanese / Color / 120 min
Source: SOL CHORD
English subtitles: Yamamoto KumikoMusic: «an object of metamorphose» by Fukushima Satoshi and Hamaji Junichi
Performed by: Yamauchi Atsuko, Kimura Kei, Fukushima Satoshi, Hamaji Junichi
Premiere Screening: YIDFF2023 International Competition
https://www.yidff.jp/2023/program/23p1-e.html

Director's Statement"Hibi AUG" is a film created under a specific rule set outlined by me, the filmmaker. It is composedof 15-second clips shot daily, seamlessly joined together. These clips primarily feature random
everyday scenes, with occasional recordings of particular locations, people, and stories. The filming
was done in an improvisational manner, imagining the connections between the cuts.
This film isn't intended to serve as an exact record of my life. Instead, it includes fictional elements,
notably through the presence of another filmmaker, "Shinjiro Maeda." His perspective, portrayed as
the film's central viewpoint, diverges from actuality.
I initially chose to film in August each year because my workload was lighter then. However, asproduction progressed, I realized the historical significance of August in Japan: the month of theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the end of World War II, and the Obon Festival tohonor ancestors and the deceased.
The production period spanned over 15 years from 2008, marked by the Lehman Shock, to theRussian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The film also captures notable events such as the Great East
Japan Earthquake, multiple changes to Japan's prime ministership, the transition from the Heisei toReiwa era, and even to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020 and 2021. This period also aligns
with the boom of smartphones and social networking services.
Notably, one may also notice that the film's protagonist (myself) undergoes two significant life
events, including two weddings and cancer surgery.
"Hibi AUG" documents the unique perspective of an individual living through 15 years of the early
21st century. At times, his “look” might completely resemble that of a terrorist. As viewers watch,they might project their own memories onto the myriad of "seen and unseen" elements on screen.
This could unlock their own forgotten memories or perhaps highlight the natural human tendency toforget.
I am eagerly anticipating to see how this film will resonate with viewers, intertwine with theirmemories, and bring forth new interpretations.

"Hibi AUG" Monologue in 2016
The novel 1984. 1984 was published in 1949. The

experience of working for the media led him to set up aauthor was an Englishman, George Orwell. He wrote

department called the Ministry of Psychology, which

the novel while suffering from tuberculosis. He died atspecialises in tele-screening, or tampering with truth in46, a year after the publication of the novel. The novel

the novel. For example, a new language called

depicts the near future 1984, 35 years later from 1949

'Newspeak' is introduced in the work. It is a newas a hopeless dystopia.

language developed to tidy up traditional English,

The story goes like this: In the 1950s a nuclear war

reduce vocabulary and encourage abbreviations, inbreaks out. The world is divided into three major

order to restrict the public's vocabulary and thinking

powers. Countries are constantly at war with one

and prevent them from thinking ideas that contradict

another. Citizens live in rooms equipped withgovernment ideology.

interactive TVs called 'telescreens.' The face of a leader

The novel also introduces a way of thinking called

called 'Big Brother' is constantly staring at them. The'doublethink = double thinking.' For example, two plus

protagonist works for a government department. His

two is five: 2+2=5, which would normally be '2+2=4',

job is to falsify official documents from the past. Hebut '2+2=5' is described as 'doublethink', the ability tofeels uncomfortable in such a freedom-deprived,understand two contradictory facts simultaneously andmonitored and controlled society. He tries to live freely.

accept them both. In the world of 1984, this ability is

At the beginning of the novel, the protagonist tries torequired. This is also what is happening in our society

write a diary at home. Writing a diary is forbidden. But

today.

he breaks the rule. While excited and confused, heThere was an American thinker, James Burnham. In

realizes that by writing the diary, he can remember

1941 he published a book called The Managerialthings that happened on the day, in addition to what isRevolution. This book greatly influenced Orwell in hiswritten down. In the novel 1984, diary writing iswork on 1984. James Burnham's idea was that the new

depicted as the first stage of modest resistance.

society would not be capitalist, not socialist, but would

The protagonist has a series of secret meetings with amove to domination by those who would take control

comrade in resistance, but in the end, designated aof the means of production.

dangerous person by the state, he is arrested,

A world dominated by corporate managers, engineers,imprisoned, tortured and brainwashed. He is taken backbureaucrats and military officers, a world governed by

to his former life.

managers, not capitalists. This was quite a frightening

What a hopeless story. Reading 1984 now, it seems avision, moving towards a Minority dictatorship madeprophecy of our society today and the not-so-distant

up of giant superstates.

future. How could Orwell imagine that people would
end up in a world like 1984? Orwell worked for BBC
during the war, producing propaganda programs for
Asia. He also worked for several other newspapers. His

SPUTNIK YIDFF Reader 2023 No.4

use computers for automatic editing, which were in a

For Discovery of the World’s Uncertainty:

sense rule-based, but the first film that I shot according"Hibi AUG"

to strict rules applied to myself was “hibi” 13 full

An Interview with Maeda Shinjiromoons.
— In the film we frequently see unexplained shifts in— I would like to ask about “hibi” AUG, whichspace, one day in Ogaki, Gifu, next in downtown

resembles “hibi” 13 full moons, which screened at theShibuya, for instance, and I found it very interesting

2005 festival. That was shot over a year in 2004, each

how such unrelated spaces clash as a core of yourday having a shot roughly 15 seconds in length…

montage.

I set a goal to make a film over many months and years,Well, if I shot this yesterday, what should I shootdeciding to record every August. At the beginning, I

today? I thought things through from the previous cut.

was very aware of the film that I had made over 12

An extremely different place results in tremendously

months in 2004, so I was set on filming 12 years ofstrong montage, so I would make such connections, orAugusts, but with the Corona disaster another year wasconversely return to the same place as the day before toadded, the film finally finished in the 15th year ofshoot from the same camera position. I shot daily

2022. Like in “hibi” 13 full moons, I would coordinate

through trial and error.

my shoots off-tandem with the movements of the— So you are orchestrating. All the more, this seems

moon, connecting 15 seconds per day, yet this differs inlike a personal film of a cineaste. In any case, your 15-

that I have added music and monologue to make it asecond shots show the real world, and I am curious,

little more accessible to audiences. Shooting daily at awhat, if anything, does this on-camera reality mean forgiven interval, I was bent on capturing the unexpected.

you?

More than recording the reality of my routine, I wished

For me, the real world is, well the more you look at itfor the filmic rules.

the more uncertain it becomes, a world with elements— I imagine that your approach of cording everyday

that cannot be captured. Human vision is ambiguous,

scenes has its roots in diary films yet feel strongly thatand this uncertainty poignantly pierces. The environs I

this work was tied to the side of rules.

shot with my camera may not be the most unsettling,

I think that diaries are the starting point of a form of art

yet they were chosen to put their existence into

in which something is created by following rules. And Iquestion. Like the cinema audiences of the Lumière

think that the individual filmmakers who took the diarybrothers, said to have been shocked upon first seeing asfilm approach were very conscious of the rules.

background motif trees and shrubs swaying in the wind,

Beginning in the 1990s, I have made cinema with video

how can contemporary audiences be awed? Such I

cameras rather than on film, and since entering.

thought while filming, connecting cuts to make athe digital age, we can record without time limit,movie.

managing footage by computer. This is the age that weare in, so there must be some kind of rules as a base for* Interview conducted by Murayama Kyoichiro (Film Critic) via

practice. In the early 2000s, I would create media that

Zoom in August 2023 (Translated by Kyle Hecht)