28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival

24. 10.–2. 11. 2025
Log inČeštinaEnglish
Summer Songsplay
Summer Songs
Summer Songs
Summer Songs
Summer Songs
Summer Songs

Summer Songs

Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas / Spain, Japan / 2024 / International Premiere / 95 min.


synopsis

Folk poetry collector Ōtani Masae visits the residents of the mountain village of Ubuyama in southern Japan and collects songs that are over a thousand years old. However, continuity is only an illusion and ancient cultural heritage is subject to fragmentary memory, rewriting and new contexts. Ballads, confessions and prayers are thus not a chronicle of old times, but a liberating manifesto against the patriarchal tradition that for centuries confined women to the solitude of their homes. Lyrically layered on 16mm filmstrip, with the intimacy of a family video and the poetics of a visual essay, the images explore the fragile power of ephemeral detail and the cathartic effect of communication and sharing.

“By making this film, I have been able to discover and be amazed by the transformative power of the Japanese ‘uta’ (‘uta’ meaning song and poem at the same time). Gently, they help loosen iron bonds. They float over Ubuyama-mura’s heavy hetero-patriarchal heritage and its strict, unwritten laws of behaviour.”

Source: Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas

Funded by INJUVE Grant for Contemporary Creation and Grant for contemporary creation and national and international mobility, Madrid City Council.

biography

Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas (1992) is a Spanish visual artist, pedagogue and curator, trained in architecture and audiovisual media. He also deals with Japan in his films Amijima, The Eternal Virgin, Meihōdō, Ubuyama Rushes or Naku: to sing, to cry, which deals with traditional Japanese folk poetry and thus forms a kind of prequel to Summer Songs.

more about film

director: Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas
cast: Masae Ohtani, Fujiko Yamabe, Fukimi Satoh, Takahiro Satoh, Masahiro Ohtani, Shouji Takahashi, Mikiko Takahashi, Shuuichi I, Mari I, Chikage I, Kinu Adachi
producer: Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas
script: Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas, Masae Ohtani
photography: Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas
editing: Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas
sound design: Pablo Teijón
Consultant: Masae Ohtani
production manager: Masae Ohtani

contact

Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas
j.suarezquinones@gmail.com

Screening time

Saturday 26. 10. 2024, 21:30

Kino Dukla – Edison

Friday 01. 11. 2024, 19:30

Kino Dukla – Reform

Film at festival

premiere type:International Premiere
festival edition:2024
section:Ji.hlava Online, First Lights
language:English, Spanish, Japanese
subtitles:English
colour:Colour

Info

director:Jorge Suárez Quiñones Rivas
original title:Natsu no uta
country:Spain, Japan
year:2024
running time:95 min.

Festival partners

Ministerstvo kultury
Fond kinematografie
Město Jihlava
Kraj Vysočina
Creative Europe Media
GEMO
Česká televize
Český rozhlas
Aktuálně.cz
Respekt
Dafilms

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