Atsuhiko Watanabe

Réalisateur·trice

BIOGRAPHIE

Atsuhiko WATANABE (Born in Tokyo, 1970) A graduate of Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains (France) and the Institute of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies at the University of Tokyo, Atsuhiko Watanabe makes films inspired by contemporary theater, choreographic works and electronic music. Among his main works, the following should be noted "A, (2001)", dance video made in collaboration with Mariko Aoyama, a Japanese choreographer and former dancer of Pina Bausch, presented at the Mori-Yu Gallery in Kyoto, at "Art in Casa Osaka" in 2001, and the re-edited version, "Adagio" (2002) presented at the Festival Vidéo Forme of Clermont-Ferrand (France) in 2003 (https://videos.videoformes.com/video/106934). His two films produced with the support of the Fresnoy and the French Ministry of Culture, "Aliénation (2003)", selected at Locarno Film Festival in 2003(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj2rEnJV1io&feature=youtu.be) , and "Resonance of Tears" (2004), selected in TV5 Tiger Cub Competition at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam in 2005, which received the Special Jury Prize at Short Shorts Film Festival Tokyo in 2006, and was invited to the International Short Film Festival in Clermont-Ferrand (France) in 2007 (https://vimeo.com/113433033). In July 2014, he directed the video-scenography for the play "L'Echange" by Paul Claudel, in a mise en scène by Jean Christophe Blondel, created at the Festival Villeneuve en scène (tour in France in 2014-2015). He also directed a portrait documentary, for NHK-BS1 television, focusing on a French charismatic editor, Jean-Louis Gauthey working for the most perfect re-edition of the Japanese manga legend Shigeru Mizuki winning the best album at Angouleme International Comics Festival, and other documentaries about the Japan Tour of the Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris with Angelin Preljocaj's piece, for Japanese TV, WOWOW. Since 1997, he writes articles as a critic on dance and opera for the Japanese magazine "Dance Magazine Japan". His "Essay on Jean Kalman--Interactions between mise-en-scène and lighting design” was published in the series "Discourse of Representation" (Tokyo University Press, 2000).
 He was a member of the jury of the MIMOS Festival (Périgueux, France) in 1999 and 2000. In 2008-2016, he was an Associate Professor of the Department of Cinema at Tokyo Zokei University, working with a renowned filmmaker, Nobuhiro Suwa as its president, in Japan. Since 2016, he lives and works in Paris. His recent work on dance, "Hannah O'Neill, Première danseuse of Paris Opera Ballet" (running time: 50 min) was broadcast in September 2019 and rebroadcast in May 2020 on the Japanese TV channel, WOWOW. It is a documentary film about Hannah O'Neill, one of the most brilliant among the Première danseuses of the Paris Opera Ballet. This film is produced by WOWOW, one of the most important private TV channels in Japan, also known as the film production company. Atsuhiko’s recent work is the experimental film, “HORROR”. This film was initially inspired by Francis Bacon's disfigured portraits and then gradually transformed into a hybrid visual soundscape of his emptiness and hope in the current daily life in Paris, full of endless loneliness and sufferings caused by the global pandemic. "HORROR" has been officially selected, for the time being, at the international festivals as follows: Kiev Film Festival 2021 (Best Experimental Film), Indo French International Film Festival 2021 (Jury Special Award), Vancouver Independent Film Festival 2021(Finalist), Montreal Independent Film Festival 2021, International Music Video Awards 2021(Semi-Finalist), Munich Music Video Awards 2021(Semi-Finalist), Prisma Rome Independent Film Awards 2021 (Finalist), Rome Music Video Awards 2021(Semi-Finalist), Prague International Monthly Film Festival 2021 (Finalist), Boden International Film Festival 2021 (Semi-Finalist), Crown Wood International Film Festival 2021, Dubai Independent Film Festival (Finalist), Paris Film Awards 2021, The Fine Arts Film Festival (USA) 2021 et NewFilmmakers NY 2021 (Finalist). His newest work is a short film entitled "THANATOS" (2021), with the following synopsis: Sadness, despair and emptiness before the sudden death of a beloved soul. These emotions are transfigured into an infinite dance of shadows and colors. A luminous space open to a death drive. As if the world were metamorphosed into the theater of Thanatos. Most of his previous films have always been collective works, but this time he wanted to create a sort of self-portrait, so he was in charge of all the visuals and music production. All work was carried out with his aim of combining analogue and digital technology, in order to create the interaction between sound and image of his imaginary landscape of the apocalyptic world due to the endless pandemic nowadays.

FILMOGRAPHIE