Saturday, September 08, 2012

What will your last words be?

When my friend Kazuko found out she was dying, there was nothing I could do.  We would just sit and talk for hours.  Early on, I realized the things she wanted to talk about were changing, as was the way she was talking about them.

I asked her if she wanted to document her journey, and she said yes.

So I began filming Kazuko that day, and I filmed her until the day she died.

The film we made is called "minus1287", and the title refers to the number of days Kazuko lived from the first day we filmed together.

On April 25th, I posted this blog (here) about the filming I had been doing quietly in the background during the past four years.  I had just finished editing the trailer for the film that I was tentatively calling "-1287".

I realized this could also be read as "negative1287", so to eliminate confusion, I've since decided to call it "minus1287".

The 'fine cut' of the film is now finished, and I have begun the long process of submitting "minus 1287" to festivals.  The website for the film, created by my friend Katsuyoshi Ueno,  is now up and running as well (here).  Ueno-san is also the amazing photographer behind the breath-taking photograph "little girl with face mask" that I am using in the promotional materials for my documentary "In the Grey Zone" (the photograph can be seen here).

We don't know which will be our last words until they are spoken.

What will your last words be?

www.minus1287.com



No comments: