Filed under: Film Series: High | Tags: Aaron Woolfolk, abroad, African-American, america, director, elevenarts, filmmaking, financing, Harimaya Bridge, interview, Japan, theatrical release
This interview with Aaron Woolfolk, the director of The Harimaya Bridge, originally appeared on the Eleven Arts website.
The Harimaya Bridge will screen on Saturday, March 6 at 8 p.m. as part of the High’s Japanese Film Festival. Learn more about the screening and read a film synopsis here >
Harimaya Bridge
Q: How did The Harimaya Bridge come about?
A: After college, I went to live and work in Japan as an English teacher on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. After that I returned to the U.S. and went to graduate film school. It was while I was in school that I started to think about how I could establish a career as a filmmaker, and what could make me stand out. I had loved my experience in Japan and it was still very much apart of my life, so I decided that I should do something with that.
I started thinking about and writing The Harimaya Bridge in film school. But I knew I had to demonstrate that one day making a feature film in rural Japan wasn’t a crazy notion. So for my thesis project I wrote and directed two short films in Japan…a comedy called Eki (The Station) and a drama called Kuroi Hitsuji (Black Sheep). Those shorts were very successful, and I was on my way.
Q: You are the first African-American to direct a feature film in Japan. Talk about how that influenced the project, and how the main American characters being African-American influenced the story.
A: When I originally started writing The Harimaya Bridge, one of the things I wanted to do was get the point across that “American” does not automatically equal “Caucasian”…though I think things have come quite a ways since then, what with the popularity of hip-hop and stars like Will Smith. And, of course, President Obama has really cemented that. Mostly, though, I really wanted to show how there are a lot of African-Americans and Africans out there experiencing all the world has to offer, whether it’s living and working abroad or something else.
I think me being black, and the American characters being black, gave the project a certain edge. A lot of people in Japan were attracted to it because they had never seen anything like it before. Ultimately, though, the people who made this happen told me they liked how having black characters made it unique, but that they fell in love with the script because they thought it was a beautiful story that was universal to everyone regardless of race or nationality.
I like how the main characters being black are an important factor, but the audience isn’t hit over the head with it. It’s not forced down your throat. I guess it reflects my own experience in Japan. When I first went there and got in front of a classroom of students, the first words out of my mouth weren’t, “I’M BLACK!! Now, let’s study verbs. And did I mention that I’M BLACK?!” Because I didn’t need to say it. That’s just the way it was. And that’s how the American characters are written and acted.
What’s funny is how some people come to the film with pre-conceived notions. Like, it’s a film by a black director with black characters, so they assume the film will have a hip-hop vibe and characters taking urban grittiness to Japan. Hey, I like hip-hop and gritty urban movies as much as anybody. But this project was inspired in part by the quiet, pastoral Japanese films I saw and fell in love with when I first got into international cinema. It was always my intention to make this film in that style. So those people who think “black” always equals rap and inner city madness…they might not last through the first 10 minutes. <laughs>
Filed under: High Museum, Staff Picks | Tags: bruce willis, clint eastwood, corleone, dario argento, eli wallach, ettore scola, gangster, horror, hudson hawk, la famiglia, lee van cleef, leonardo da vinci, mafia, michael lehmann, razzies, sergio leone, suspiria, the godfather
It’s already the final weekend of our Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of the Genius exhibition. To honor it, Museum staff have selected their favorite Italian movies. What’s yours?
BERRY PERKINS
Curatorial Assistant, Decorative Arts and Design
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – Sergio Leone
Not only does it have one of the best musical scores ever written, this is the best of the Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns and upped the ante on what a “Western Movie” could be. Not to mention it stars one of the greatest villains ever with Lee Van Cleef (Angel Eyes – The Bad) – can anyone top that guy’s face? The graveyard scene is one of the most memorable and palpitating in cinema… the swirling, circular camera shots perfectly express the frenzy and drama of the moment as Eli Wallach (Tuco – The Ugly) reaches the breaking point in the race for gold, as Ennio Morricone’s epic The Ecstasy of Gold builds and swells with passion.
And of course, this new era of Western Cowboy is represented by one of Clint Eastwood’s most iconic characters (Blondie – The Good… yet, WAS he all that good?). The extreme close ups, the innovative camera angles and sweeping cinematography, and the rugged blatant “UGLY” (physical and internal) depicted throughout the movie are all traits synonymous with Sergio Leone’s distinctive vision. Ironically filmed in Spain with an Italian crew instead of the Wild American West, the iconic filmmaking and music have gone on to inspire other well-known creative forces from Quentin Tarantino to Metallica. Now counted as one of the best movies ever made by countless critics, this film is worth the 3 hours.
JULIE MARATECK
Speakers Bureau Coordinator
The Godfather Collection
The Godfather & The Godfather: Part II – Francis Ford Coppola
I really don’t know how I can pick an “Italian-themed” film other than The Godfather series. I know it sounds obvious, but it really is one of the greatest films of all-time. I love these films because I feel like I really get to be a part of the Corleone family. Two distinct scenes that always stand out in my mind is when Michael Corleone does his first “hit job” in a restaurant. He tried so hard to not follow in his father’s footsteps, but in that moment in the restaurant, you know that his life’s trajectory is about to seriously change. The other scene is when Diane Keaton’s character tells Michael that she terminated her pregnancy. The tension in Michael’s face is so palpable that you are literally holding onto your seat to see just how he is about to react. I also love going back in time in The Godfather Part II to see the genisis of the Corleone family.
As a film lover and a film major at my university, The Godfather was one of the first films that really got me to think about how you can enter the world of fictional characters and be captivated by their dysfunctional lives. If often makes you feel a lot better about your own.
JOHAN HARPER
Security Officer
Suspiria
Suspiria – Dario Argento
Longtime Italian horror movie director Dario Argento is helping remake one of his classic Italian horror movies Suspiria. The remake is supposed to be out later this year. The 1977 Suspiria has been re-released on Blu-Ray, and it has been called the most beautiful of the Italian “Giallo” horror films. I am tempted to buy the Blu-Ray version even though I already have a copy on regular DVD.
It may be hard to understand how a horror movie could be described as beautiful. If you can stand the extreme tension and shocking violence you can see the lush production values, the strong use of color, and the very unusual soundtrack. It’s garish, loud, intentionally grating at points, and deeply disturbing. The movie belongs with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead as one of the best of the horror genre.
ELLEN CLARKE
Speakers Bureau Intern
La Famiglia
La Famiglia – Ettore Scola
My favorite Italian film is La Famiglia, a 1987 film by Ettore Scola featured at Cannes. The entire film takes place in the patriarch’s apartment, following the stories of one Italian family, from the Belle Époque to the 1980s. The greatest value of the film is that Scola places the compelling personal narratives of love, friendship, and betrayal within the historical and political framework of the two world wars and the other great events of the twentieth century.
EMILY DIFFENDERFER
Web Content Coordinator
Hudson Hawk
Hudson Hawk – Michael Lehmann
Okay, so this might be sad, but how much do I love Hudson Hawk? It’s probably one of the most panned movies of all time, and won “Worst Picture,” “Worst Screenplay” and “Worst Director” Razzies in 1992. But I’ve never been one for critical acclaim. (Director Michael Lehmann has since moved onto directing “it”-TV shows like True Blood and Big Love. Maybe he was just ahead of his time.)
The story is about an ex-con who agrees to that one last gig, which happens to involve a whole lot of Leonardo da Vinci (and an extra vile Sandra Bernhard!). It’s made of complete falsehoods, and might be offensive if you care about history, but the characters you meet (Butterfinger? Almond Joy?), the scenery and the fun heist-movie feeling make it worth your while. Well, it makes it worth my while, anyway.
Plus, it’s practically a sing-along! To keep track of the time they have left before the cops storm the joint, Danny Aiello’s Tommy Five-Tone and Bruce Willis’s Eddie Hawkins (the Hudson Hawk), sing songs of a certain length. Would you like to swing on a star? Yep, I sure would.
Filed under: Guest Blogger, High Museum, Top Picks | Tags: angels, archangel, john travolta, legion, leonardo da vinci, michael, movie trailers, paul bettany, wim wenders
As Leonardo‘s angels prepare to take flight (the exhibition ends on February 21), here are a couple of movies to fill the radiance gap.
Wings of Desire
(Linda Dubler)
There are some movies so precious to memory that they are best left there. That’s the way I feel about Wings of Desire, which I saw in a hormone-heightened state (I was pregnant at the time) upon its release in 1988. But just because I won’t go back again doesn’t mean you shouldn’t — and if you’ve never seen Wings Of Desire, what a gift awaits you!
The film opens with an extended, lyrical reverie, in which we are privy to the watchful existence of two angels who listen in on the thoughts and dreams of Berliners as though their combined consciousnesses were a really big party line. The mood of this sequence is tender and ruefull; the angels can tap in, but can’t change whatever sorrow or obstruction they might witness. In his review of the film , Rogert Ebert nails this sequence when he writes, “it moves slowly but you don’t grow impatient, because there is no plot to speak of, and so you don’t fret that it should move to its next predictable stage. It is about being, not doing.”
As I recall, the whole movie becomes more earthbound when one of the angels, played by Bruno Ganz, falls in love with an acrobat in a faded little circus, and trades his wings for human emotions. But even then director Wim Wenders suffuses his work with gentle humor and a sublime combination of appreciation and resignation over our species’ vulnerability and love’s transcendence.
Angels in America
(Linda Dubler)
If you haven’t seen Mike Nichols’s brilliant adaptation of Tony Kushner’s epic, multi-award winning play, add it right now to the top of your Netflix queue or make it your next selection at the video store. A sprawling, furious, inspired epic that opens in October, 1985, the six hour, two-part drama, in the words of Variety’s Todd McCarthy, ” retains all the immediacy of Kushner’s passionate foot-stomping about AIDS, the Reagan years, political and personal hypocrisy, compassion, the Mormons, spirituality and so much more.”
If it now seems like a period piece, it still carries an enormous emotional charge, thanks to the prodigious acting by a cast that includes Al Pacino (and not a scene-hogging, grandstanding Al Pacino either), Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Jeffrey Wright, and Mary-Louise Parker among others. Make sure you clear your calendar because once you start watching you won’t be able to turn away from the screen.
Legion
(Eleanor Ringel Cater)
Legion s an agreeably cheesy celestial smack-down currently in movie theaters (for now!) Paul Bettany (best known as Russell Crowe’s’s doctor pal in Master and Commander and soon to be seen as Charles Darwin in Creation stars as Michael, a now-fallen angel trying to keep a disgruntled God from having His latest command carried out. Namely, to destroy Mankind!
Michael ends up watching over what may be the new Messiah; that is, defending a pregnant woman and various, um, characters at a remote diner. A lot of it is along the lines of, “This Time, It’s Personal!!!,” but as I said, sometimes that’s what you’re in the mood for: Wrestlemania with wings — and guns. At its best it recalls the cult classic Tremors.
Michael
(Eleanor Ringel Cater)
- John Travolta in Michael
High Museum of Art: Films 