Toshio Matsumoto

Engram is a three-part piece revolving around a few good old ideas such as photos inside of photos, movies inside of movies, photos inside of movies, movies inside of photos, and (even) a film director inside a TV set.

Video began as a medium that inspired discovery. This art documentary traces the expressive roots of “media art” in Japan — works of video, performances, and installations created using video technology that allowed for free and creative visual expression.

A documentary on sixties counterculture in Japan featuring Donald Richie, Tadanori Yokoo, Masao Adachi, Koji Wakamatsu, Toshio Matsumoto and Akaji Maro among others.

A five-part documentary chronicling Toshio Matsumoto, the legendary filmmaker known as a pioneer of experimental cinema in Japan and also active as a film theorist, who exerted a profound influence on innovative film expression from the 1950s onward. Directed by filmmaker and critic Takefumi Tsutsui—himself both a filmmaker and critic like Matsumoto—the project was filmed over the course of ten years. Interweaving excerpts from Matsumoto’s works with an extensive series of interviews with collaborators and critics, the documentary retraces, through the figure of Matsumoto, the tumultuous decades from the 1950s to the 2000s across five parts, totaling 700 minutes.

Toshio Matsumoto articulates his perspective on the creation of Dogra Magra, presented in the supplementary section of the Radiance DVD release.

In 1960s Tokyo, Gonda owns a bar in which the gay, cross-dresser, and trans scenes meet. Gonda is in a relationship with the madam of the bar, Leda. As the younger Eddie starts a passionate affair with Gonda, she ignites the jealousy of Leda, unaware of another kind of history between them.

In 1960s Tokyo, Gonda owns a bar in which the gay, cross-dresser, and trans scenes meet. Gonda is in a relationship with the madam of the bar, Leda. As the younger Eddie starts a passionate affair with Gonda, she ignites the jealousy of Leda, unaware of another kind of history between them.

Gengobe Satsuma, an exiled samurai cast out as an Asano clan retainer, is given a second chance to join his brothers in arms to become the 48th Ronin against the Shogunate. His faithful servant gathers the 100 ryo required for his acceptance. Gengobe is also in love with a greedy geisha named Koman. About to be sold to another man, Gengobe learns that in order to keep her, her debt is exactly 100 ryo.

Gengobe Satsuma, an exiled samurai cast out as an Asano clan retainer, is given a second chance to join his brothers in arms to become the 48th Ronin against the Shogunate. His faithful servant gathers the 100 ryo required for his acceptance. Gengobe is also in love with a greedy geisha named Koman. About to be sold to another man, Gengobe learns that in order to keep her, her debt is exactly 100 ryo.

A 20-year-old drifter and a precocious 16-year-old girl slowly form a bond in a small town haunted by its wartime past.

A 20-year-old drifter and a precocious 16-year-old girl slowly form a bond in a small town haunted by its wartime past.

Towards the end of WWII, a black American pilot is captured and imprisoned by rural Japanese villagers, who await official instructions as to how to proceed with their 'catch'.

Repetitive abstract experimental film. A bearded man flickers past a hundred times.

A young man murders his new bride and goes insane. He wakes in an asylum with no memory, left in the hands of two mysterious doctors who relate his condition with his biological identity.

A young man murders his new bride and goes insane. He wakes in an asylum with no memory, left in the hands of two mysterious doctors who relate his condition with his biological identity.

'Ki or Breathing' is a spare concoction assembled from slow motion shots of nature and set to a score by the much-acclaimed Tohru Takemitsu.

By cutting up and zoom in on images of facades creates Matsumoto visual effects.

Writes Matsumoto, "I used the Erekutoro Karapurosesu (Electro Color Processor), which is mainly used in the field of medicine and engineering, to create moving image textures Metastasis, I was interested in layering images of a simple object and its electronically processed abstraction. The electronic abstract image is manipulated in a certain rhythm, depicting an organic process."

Documentary about the relationships between mothers and their children.

A kaleidoskopic image of Andy Warhol, presumably found footage from some interview, is slowed down and played over sudden pangs of screeching white noise. Warhol's own distorted, delayed, voice guides us through the gaseous hallucination.

A short documentary about a trailer weighing over 300 tons that carries material for the construction of a dam toward Tokyo.

Early experimental PR "cine-poem" by Toshio Matsumoto. Commissioned by Kansai Electricity, the film paints an abstract, near-wordless retelling of the development of power stations in Japan, through to the presumed oncoming advent of nuclear power.

Pictures from a Buddhist temple cut up and manipulated.

Engram is a three-part piece revolving around a few good old ideas such as photos inside of photos, movies inside of movies, photos inside of movies, movies inside of photos, and (even) a film director inside a TV set.

No synopsis available yet.

Matsumoto's last video was produced by Sano Gallery. Matsumoto set the common theme as “Seeing” in 2009, six co-writers participated to directing the omnibus film, "Seeing". Initially, there were no plans to expand it into trilogy, and Matsumoto was also limitedly involved in the work. Later, Matsumoto envisioneds works that pursued the omnibus format, and sets up a common theme of "memory.” Afterwards, Matsumoto begun the production of Pilgrimage into the Memory, a reconstruction of works produced by five participating artists. However, the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred while producing the work. Matsumoto shocked by the earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, he decided to produce a new work, All Things Change, and titled it's trilogy, Toro no Ono Daisambu. The third part, All Things Change, consists of videos produced by Tanotaiga, Kanako Inaki, Hiroyuki Oki, Okuno Kunito, and Tanako Tanaka.

In Connection, a static shot of the sky with moving clouds is subdivided into regular geometrical regions, which are then individually (and rhythmically) manipulated.

The Weavers of Nishijin captures the process of traditional textile manufacture in Nishijin.

The Weavers of Nishijin captures the process of traditional textile manufacture in Nishijin.