Shinkichi Tajiri

Filmes

Journeys from Berlin/1971
Writer
An epic meditation on psychoanalysis, the Baader-Meinhof, feminism, and pre-revolutionary Russia.
Bodil Joensen: A Summerday July 1970
Director
The documentary, shows her living with her animals on her farm during this era, including their care, her affection for them, and her sexual life, entirely to the tune of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony (Pastoral)—an involuntary artistic choice that became necessary when the original soundtrack recordings became unavailable through a gaffe.
Ferdi
Director
Documentary on Ferdi Tajiri and her iron welded jewelry. This atmospheric documentary shows Ferdi welding and fashioning her jewelry. The images of the insect-like jewels fade into footage of real insects.
The Vipers
Director
Short film about the experience of taking psychoactive drugs. ‘I wanted to make a short documentary-style film about marijuana and hashish, psychoactive drugs that in 1955 were still relatively unknown to the general public. They were mainly used by a small group of artists, jazz musicians, intellectuals, and North Africans. I wanted to visualize the ritual of rolling and lighting up a joint, and then put a series of seemingly unrelated images next to each other to represent the feeling of being high. When the movie was finished, we took it to the festival for 16mm films at Cannes, and won the Golden Lion for ‘Best Use of Film Language’. (Shinkichi Tajiri, Tajiri, 1993)
Bicycles
Director
The first film that I made in Amsterdam was Bicycles. I came from a four-wheel culture; in America, bikes are for little boys. When you’re fifteen or sixteen years old, you start driving a car. When I came here, I saw all these children and grandpas and grandmas on their bikes. It was quite remarkable for a foreigner.’