The Fourth Dimension

Trinh T. Minh-ha / United States, Japan / 2001 / 87 min.

synopsis

The restless soul of the traveller never remains in one place for long. Today, his journey is ritually captured by a series of visual records that bear witness to a specific time and place, as well as to something that defies words. In her first digital film, documentary filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha turns her attention to Japan and its cultural and social rituals. The camera becomes a meticulous instrument of observation and tentative understanding. Made at the turn of the millennium, the film is also a meditation on the ways in which we attempt to capture the world through the moving image. Within this world, the director finds herself in the dual role of an isolated observer and a guide.

biography

Trinh T. Minh-ha is a filmmaker, writer and composer, and Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work includes nine feature-length films, which have been honored with over seventy retrospectives around the world, large-scale installations and numerous books, including Elsewhere, Within Here (2011).