Mental

In the organizer's words:

精神 Seishin

Director: SÔDA Kazuhiro
2008, 135 minutes, OmeU, Blu-ray

In the style of cinéma vérité, Seishin shows everyday life on the outpatient ward of the Japanese psychiatric clinic, Chorale Okayama, in a wealth of scenes with patients, doctors, nurses, volunteers and home care staff. He candidly gives an insight into the lives of people battling suicidal tendencies, poverty, shame, phobias and fear of society.
The patients who come to Dr. Yamamoto Masatomo's consultation suffer from various mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, manic-depressive states, eating disorders, panic attacks and other personality disorders.

With great empathy for mentally ill people, the director succeeds in presenting the clinic as a microcosm in which the essential questions of our time are asked.

Source: Berlinale 2009

Film series
The Japanese documentary filmmaker Sôda Kazuhiro - The Power of Observation

Sôda Kazuhiro was born in 1970 in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture. He studied religious studies at the University of Tokyo and film at the School of Visual Arts in New York. His "Observational Method of Documentary Film" is based on his own "Ten Commandments". Using this method, he has made eleven feature-length documentaries that have been shown at festivals around the world and won awards. The films are produced by his wife Kashiwagi Kiyoko. He is also the author of nine books, of which Why I Make Documentaries has been translated into English, Korean and Chinese.

As a filmmaker, he has received the Peabody Award and is also the recipient of the Marek Nowicki Award from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights for his life's work.

His filmography and an overview of his publications can be found on his homepage https://www.kazuhirosoda.com.

To mark the German premiere of his latest work,Gokôgû no neko (The Cats of the Gokogu Shrine, 2024; Fugu Filmverleih Berlin), Sôda Kazuhiro is coming to Germany to present the film in person in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Berlin. The Japanese Cultural Institute will also be showing three earlier documentaries dealing with the topics of political elections(Senkyo, 2007), mental illness(Seishin, 2008) and temporary work(Kaki kôba, 2015).

Film preview at the Filmpalette Cologne

Thursday, November 21, 2024 | 8 pm
The cats from the Gokogu shrine
五香宮の猫 Gokôgû no neko
2024, 119 minutes, original German, DCP

Admission: 6 €

In the presence of director Sôda Kazuhiro, with Q&A after the screening.

Price information:

Admission free