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Twenty-five-year-old Momo has friends. Her parents live some distance away, but they sometimes get together to dine out. She dates an acceptable guy, and they share drinks at home. She apologizes to unreasonable clients over the phone at work and hones her ability to keep things civil with coworkers at drinks after work. This perfectly ordinary life means Momo doesn't immediately notice a nagging feeling: "I want to die." For her, it's a phrase she must never say aloud. One summer, unable to bear the thought of the coming Monday, Momo takes a day off from work. She begins to visit other people who struggle with thoughts of suicide, but have discovered alternatives and choose to live instead. She connects with these "Papagenos" through social media. Over the course of her difficult journey, Momo herself begins to discover other choices beyond death.
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When filmmaker/essayist Sasaki Yusuke accepted a job offer in the city of Tottori, the first thing he wanted to know was how many cinemas there were. The answer was depressing: just one. But when Sasaki started to explore his new home, gallivanting through its streets and alleys, he found traces of a plentiful culture of alternative screening venues. The founder of Tottori’s oldest cinema club is still organising projections; another elderly gentleman discovered the political importance of documentary films decades ago and has shared it ever since with his audiences; a curator at the city’s toy museum thought that showing animation films might deepen people’s appreciation of their exhibition. Where two or three gather in its name, there is cinema. In its emphasis on ordinary people and the social value of film screenings, Cinephilia Now is unlike any other current documentary on the love for cinema.
