Air's Rock

Director: Takahiko Iimura
Year: 2008
Country: Japan | Australia
Length: 29 mins
Format: NTSC | R0
Colour: Colour
Certificate: E

Synopsis

"A huge isolated rock in the midst of desert in Australia: Ayers Rock. I produced two films around this rock, however, they are very contrasting in the way the films were made. Originally I produced the second film "Ayers Rock" for a laserdisc by the Pioneer company as part of a series of "Environmental Video," (typically, a lengthy fixed scene of, for example, a waterfall with traditional Japanese music, a kind of video wall-painting), which was popular in the middle of the 1980s. As the document of its making, "Moments At The Rock" shot with an amateur video camera, is the first piece presented here. This camera got strange halation from the strong sunshine in the desert of Australia, and I was quite surprised by the result which surpassed the color change caused by nature over the rock. This film was awarded Grand Prize at Edison International Film Festival, and was appreciated in advance of the other film as an experimental film far more than a document of the making of the laserdisc. The "Ayers Rock" released by the Pioneer company sold well with the popularity of Jazz pianist, Richie Byrach. But since I was not satisfied by the so called "Environmental Video," I drastically re-edited as "A Rock In The Light", and requested the music of Haruyuki Suzuki, contemporary composer. Different from the Jazz music, this music is unified with the image, which is far more visually structured, conceptualizing the passing of time and, I believe, the film went much further than the previous work." – Takahiko Iimura