Takashi Makino Director of "Generator"

Can you explain the idea behind the film?

The idea originally came from Aichi Arts Center, an institution from Nagoya that produces an experimental film with the body as its theme every year. I was interested in the body as a system, its cellules and how they are connected since I was young, so I decided to apply and eventually got their grant to make the film. In Generator my first idea was to show the city as a body. I wanted to express the moving of the cells by emphasizing the grainy texture of the image. Also, I tried to make the visual organization to resemble the blood-stream, and to make it pulsate like a heartbeat. That is also why I chose the color red and showed it rhythmically changing from darker to brighter to resemble not only heartbeats, but also the movements inside of the body.

Music plays an important role in your film. Can you tell us something about your collaboration with Jim O’Rourke?

I first met Jim 6 years ago. I gave him my earlier film and asked him to compose the music for it. He didn’t contact me for a long time, but after 2 years he brought me the music. The soundtrack was really good, and I listened to it quite often, especially while I was travelling by plane. So, while I was shooting this film I immediately started to think about the soundtrack. The original soundtrack was only three minutes long so I asked Jim to recompose the music and to make it longer. The two of us collaborated several times so far and normally I don’t interfere with the score. Generator was an exception because I directed him in detail on how to compose the score for the film.

Do you show him the film before he starts composing?

Yes. The image is always first and I think of it as a graphic score: a visual basis for composing music.

You started working on the film before the tragic events in Japan: the earthquake and the Fukushima disaster. How much did these events influence your artistic decisions?

The idea has been the same from the start, and it didn’t change. But while I was looking at the footage during the editing, it reminded me of the nuclear waste, and the destruction brought by the tsunami. During the process there were times when I really wanted to stop the project, but then I read again the original “script” - the textual piece I wrote before I started to shoot the film - and I decided to keep on making it. It was really difficult, but in the end I’m happy that I’ve done it. What happened in Japan was a big influence, but I think I needed to change my anger and disappointment with everything that happened into energy! The possibility of this kind of transformation is one of the important reasons why I am an artist.

Can you explain the title?

My goal is to create films with neutral images: without strong messages or pointing the audience into certain conclusions. The audience should think and imagine by themselves, because the answers are not set. When you confront the images, you start to make your own meanings. Generator in the title has nothing to do with the nuclear plant: it’s the generator of imagination.

By Mario Kozina