Film Poster

16mm film transferred to digital, color/sound, 18 min. 26 sec., Japan, 2015.

Shape Shifting was shown at Berlinale Forum Expanded 2015.

Granting culture to the nonhuman world, the film “Shape Shifting” outlines a cartography of a particular landscape. A landscape, which can be found in many parts of Asia and in Japan is called “satoyama”, literally meaning “space between village and mountain”. This landscape is a membrane constructed by exchanges and encounters between non-human and human life. The agricultural and forestry productivity of this landscape is based on the increase of biodiversity of the ecosystem. The more collaborations between the species and the cycles of materials are created—the more stable ecosystem can be formed.