Synopsis

Can time be made to stand still? Can it be reversed? Koji Yamamura’s Muybridge’s Stringsis a meditation on this theme, contrasting the worlds of the photographer Eadweard Muybridge—who in 1878 successfully photographed consecutive phases in the movement of a galloping horse—and a mother who, watching her daughter grow up, realizes she is slipping away from her.

Koji Yamamura

Koji Yamamura (1964) graduated from the Tokyo Zokei University. In 2002, his film Mt. Head won grand prizes at six major animation festivals including Annecy and Zagreb and was nominated for the 75th Academy Award. His film Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor won grand prizes at seven festivals including Ottawa and Stuttgart. His films have thus far in his career won more than 70 awards. He is a vice-chairman of the Japan Animation Association and the board of directors of ASIFA Japan, a director of the Hiroshima Festival Media Arts Division from 2021, president of Yamamura Animation, Inc., a visiting professor at the Tokyo Zokei University since 2004 and a professor at the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts since 2008.