Directing

Tomonari Nishikawa

Died April 20, 2025

Filmmaker, curator, and academic. Born in 1969. Nishikawa’s films explore the idea of documenting situations/phenomena through a chosen medium and technique, often focusing on process itself. His films have been screened at numerous film festivals and art venues, including Berlinale, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam…

Known For

Apollo

"It shows my interest in materials, medium, and apparatus of cinema. The sound will be produced from the visual on the optical soundtrack – for some parts, I used a 35mm still camera to expose the soundtrack area, and I scratched off the film emulsion directly for other parts. This is my senior thesis project at Binghamton University, and Julie Murray was my advisor." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Luminous Veil

Luminous Veil · 2016

Music & lyrics by Lightning Bug Video by Tomonari Nishikawa

Market Street

Market Street · 2005

"All images were shot on Market Street, one of the main streets in San Francisco. I used Sketch Film #1 and Sketch Film #2 as reference to make a plan of the film structure, and the visual was carefully composed frame by frame, while shooting on the street. This project was commissioned by Exploratorium and San Francisco Arts Commission for the outdoor screening event, A Trip Down Market Street 1905/2005: An Outdoor Centennial Celebration, at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco on Sep. 25, 2005."

Shibuya - Tokyo

Shibuya - Tokyo · 2010

Shibuya - Tokyo

"JR (Japan Railway Company) Yamanote Line is one of the Japan's busiest lines, consisting of 29 stations and running as a loop. The film shows scenes around the entrances of 20 stations, from Shibuya Station to Tokyo Station clockwise. The in-camera visual effects and the layered soundtrack would exaggerate the noises and movements at the senses."

Sketch Film #3

Sketch Film #3 · 2006

"The third film in the series, which starts with a sequence of paired images: a focused image and a blurred image of the same subject, which was caused by a diagonal camera movement. Later, it shows an experiment to produce an apparent depth by rotating an apparent shape. It was edited in camera and hand-processed afterwards." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Trafic

Music by Jeremy Young (with Tomonari Nishikawa) Music video by Tomonari Nishikawa

Lumphini 2552

Lumphini 2552 · 2009

"It was shot by a 35mm still camera at Lumphini Park in Bangkok, Thailand, which was named after Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. The hand-processed visual shows the organic patterns found in this monumental park, constructing the systematic yet emotional rhythm and pace on the screen, accompanied by the sound from the visual, which was also captured through the still camera on the optical soundtrack area of the 35mm movie format. I am not a Buddhist, but as I grew up in Japan, I am familiar with some of the Buddhist teachings, including the Middle Way, which is a practice to avoid the extremes of the binary oppositions in life. The organic shapes of a leaf is never appears as perfectly straight lines, and I took pictures of leaves to make them appear either horizontal or vertical lines on the screen for a single cartridge of 35mm film (36 exposure for still photography = 3 seconds for the movie format). 2552 is the year on the Buddhist calendar for 2009." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Tokyo - Ebisu

Tokyo - Ebisu · 2010

"JR (Japan Railway Company) Yamanote Line is one of the Japan's busiest lines, consisting of 29 stations and running in a loop. The film shows the views from the platforms of 10 stations in Yamanote Line, from Tokyo Station to Ebisu Station clockwise. The in-camera visual effects and the layered soundtracks may exaggerate the sense of the actual location, while suggesting the equipment that was used for capturing the audio and visual." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Filmography

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Apollo

"It shows my interest in materials, medium, and apparatus of cinema. The sound will be produced from the visual on the optical soundtrack – for some parts, I used a 35mm still camera to expose the soundtrack area, and I scratched off the film emulsion directly for other parts. This is my senior thesis project at Binghamton University, and Julie Murray was my advisor." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Luminous Veil

Luminous Veil · 2016

Music & lyrics by Lightning Bug Video by Tomonari Nishikawa

Director

Market Street

Market Street · 2005

"All images were shot on Market Street, one of the main streets in San Francisco. I used Sketch Film #1 and Sketch Film #2 as reference to make a plan of the film structure, and the visual was carefully composed frame by frame, while shooting on the street. This project was commissioned by Exploratorium and San Francisco Arts Commission for the outdoor screening event, A Trip Down Market Street 1905/2005: An Outdoor Centennial Celebration, at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco on Sep. 25, 2005."

Director

Shibuya - Tokyo

Shibuya - Tokyo · 2010

Shibuya - Tokyo

"JR (Japan Railway Company) Yamanote Line is one of the Japan's busiest lines, consisting of 29 stations and running as a loop. The film shows scenes around the entrances of 20 stations, from Shibuya Station to Tokyo Station clockwise. The in-camera visual effects and the layered soundtrack would exaggerate the noises and movements at the senses."

Director

Sketch Film #3

Sketch Film #3 · 2006

"The third film in the series, which starts with a sequence of paired images: a focused image and a blurred image of the same subject, which was caused by a diagonal camera movement. Later, it shows an experiment to produce an apparent depth by rotating an apparent shape. It was edited in camera and hand-processed afterwards." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Trafic

Music by Jeremy Young (with Tomonari Nishikawa) Music video by Tomonari Nishikawa

Director

Lumphini 2552

Lumphini 2552 · 2009

"It was shot by a 35mm still camera at Lumphini Park in Bangkok, Thailand, which was named after Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. The hand-processed visual shows the organic patterns found in this monumental park, constructing the systematic yet emotional rhythm and pace on the screen, accompanied by the sound from the visual, which was also captured through the still camera on the optical soundtrack area of the 35mm movie format. I am not a Buddhist, but as I grew up in Japan, I am familiar with some of the Buddhist teachings, including the Middle Way, which is a practice to avoid the extremes of the binary oppositions in life. The organic shapes of a leaf is never appears as perfectly straight lines, and I took pictures of leaves to make them appear either horizontal or vertical lines on the screen for a single cartridge of 35mm film (36 exposure for still photography = 3 seconds for the movie format). 2552 is the year on the Buddhist calendar for 2009." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Tokyo - Ebisu

Tokyo - Ebisu · 2010

"JR (Japan Railway Company) Yamanote Line is one of the Japan's busiest lines, consisting of 29 stations and running in a loop. The film shows the views from the platforms of 10 stations in Yamanote Line, from Tokyo Station to Ebisu Station clockwise. The in-camera visual effects and the layered soundtracks may exaggerate the sense of the actual location, while suggesting the equipment that was used for capturing the audio and visual." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Amusement Ride

Amusement Ride · 2019

Shot with a telephoto lens from inside a cabin of Cosmo Clock 21, a Ferris wheel at an amusement park in Yokohama, Japan. The distorted image shows the structure of the Ferris wheel, focusing on the intermittent vertical movement, which resembles the movement of a film at the gate of a film projector or camera.

Director

Manhattan One Two Three Four

Manhattan One Two Three Four · 2013

Manhattan One Two Three Four

"A study in visual rhythm with images of architecture in Manhattan, New York, using the technique I did for the first sequence in Sketch Film #3. All edited in-camera and hand-processed afterwards. This film was commissioned by Echo Park Film Center for the celebration of its 12th anniversary." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Clear Blue Sky

Clear Blue Sky · 2006

"The visual was recorded through, not a lens, but an adjustable slit-like opening, which was attached in front of the image sensor. I was changing the length of the slit and rotating the angle to modify the visual, as my response to the activities taken place at Washington Square, San Francisco, on a beautiful sunny day." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Sound of a Million Insects, Light of a Thousand Stars

Sound of a Million Insects, Light of a Thousand Stars · 2015

Sound of a Million Insects, Light of a Thousand Stars

"I buried a 100-foot (about 30 meters) 35mm negative film under fallen leaves alongside a country road, which was about 25 km away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, for about 6 hours, from the sunset of June 24, 2014, to the sunrise of the following day. The night was beautiful with a starry sky, and numerous summer insects were singing loud. The area was once an evacuation zone, but now people live there after the removal of the contaminated soil. This film was exposed to the possible remaining of the radioactive materials." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon

Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon · 2016

Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon

"It displays bridges on Yahagi River, which runs near where I was grown up in Japan. I shot each bridge twice, first in the morning and second in the evening of the day. It was exposed one-sixth of the frame at a time and the result would show the sense of the sun rising or setting." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

16-18-4

16-18-4 · 2009

It was shot through a toy 35mm camera with 16 lenses, which would take a series of 16 images consecutively within a few seconds in two rows on 35mm film, spreading on two regular 35mm frames for still photography – the mechanism is similar to the device that Eadweard Muybridge created to photograph a horse galloping in 1887, before the movie camera was invented. The film shows an event at Tokyo Racecourse when it was holding the 2008 Japanese Derby (Tokyo Yushun), the biggest event of the year, where the excitement of each race would last about 2 minutes and 30 seconds. This toy camera was not designed to produce a movie, so the bouncing visual displays the uniqueness of this particular toy camera, while it might also echo the vigorous movements of the racing horses.

Director

Into the Mass

Into the Mass · 2007

"The visual was originally captured through two Super 8 cameras, which were attached on the pedals of a bicycle, through my ride from Marin County to San Francisco. The time-lapse footage was optically printed onto 16mm film afterwards, and the double projection would show a new landscape of the photogenic city. The ride ended after joining Critical Mass, an event occurs the last Friday of every month in San Francisco." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 1

Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 1 · 2021

Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 1

In this live projection performance for 16mm film, Tomonari Nishikawa explores the material specificity of the cinematic apparatus through a real-time manipulation of its physical elements. Scratching directly onto the emulsion of a looping filmstrip in the midst of projection, Nishikawa creates animated abstractions in a pattern of horizontal lines, and also generates the film’s score, a percussive throbbing of noise.

Director

Sketch Film #5

Sketch Film #5 · 2007

"This is the last film in the series. I shot at the site of Marin Headlands County in California when I was an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Art. The footage shows the nature in the area, as well as the historic buildings originally built for the US Army, including batteries and the Nike Missile Site. It was all edited in camera and hand-processed afterwards." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke

Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke · 2023

Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke

"Fireworks were shot at a summer festival in Japan with a Super 16 format camera in order to obtain images on the optical soundtrack area on the filmstrip. The position of the photocell to read the visual information on the optical soundtrack area in a 16mm film projector is 26 frames in advance of the position of the gate to project the image. Each footage from 2 rolls of 16mm film were cut into shots of 26 frames each, and the shots were alternated from one roll to another, which would further separate the sound and visual, while producing a distinct rhythm throughout the film." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Sketch Film #4

Sketch Film #4 · 2007

"The fourth film in the series, for which I focused on colors and shapes. It was shot on Kodachrome, all edited in camera, and processed at Dwayne’s Photo." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 3 (For Charles)

Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 3 (For Charles) · 2023

Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 3 (For Charles)

This is the third variation of the on-going 16mm film projector performance piece, "Six Seventy-Two Variations," for which I produce images and sound as a live performance. I use a wood carving knife to scratch off the photographic emulsion of the looped film as a live performance. Scratched patterns, which would be mostly horizontal lines, will appear as an abstract animation on the screen and produce noises, as the area of the filmstrip reserved for the optical soundtrack will be also scratched. Due to the distance between the gate of the projector and the position of the photocell to read the visual information for sound, the noise from a scratched pattern will be produced about a second later after it appears on the screen.

Director

Sketch Film #2

Sketch Film #2 · 2005

"The second film in the series, showing my study especially in apparent shapes – a shape that cannot be seen in a single frame but only through a series of consecutive frames when projected. It was edited in camera and hand-processed afterwards." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

Sketch Film #1

Sketch Film #1 · 2005

"As a painter carries a sketchbook and practices drawing, I carried a Super 8 camera and shot frame by frame, as an everyday exercise to make animations of lines and shapes found in the public space. The entire film was edited in camera and hand-processed afterwards." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director

45 7 Broadway

45 7 Broadway · 2013

"This is about Times Square, the noise and movements at this most well-known intersection. I used a color separation technique – it was originally shot on black and white film through color filters (red, green, and blue), then optically printed onto color film through these filters. The layered images of shots by the handheld camera would agitate the scenes, and the advertisements on the digital billboards try to pull ahead of others." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Director