Çağıl Harmandar is an artist from İstanbul, Turkey.
She has graduated from the SMFA at Tufts University in 2016, and Tokyo University of Arts in 2023. She is currently a practice based Phd PhD Student at thein Film and Media Studies of at Geidai Tokyo University of Arts and based in Japan.

• Vimeo

Chirps

This film is about the smell of summer nights. It is It and is made using mixed media, such as tapes, pastels, markers and pens. The film media with poetry are used to create the feelings of small moments from summer.

Visual artist born in Tottori, Japan, ; currently living in Turkey. She eExplores the expression of the past and present, combining digital and analogue processes such as printmaking, moving images, and photography. Her work mainly focuses on the trace of beliefs in landscape and the narratives of memory and forgetting.

Journey and photography always serve as the starting point of her creation. After completing a master’s course program in London, she travelled through Europe and the Middle East. She was greatly influenced by the sense of beauty deeply connected to religious thought in each place.

• Instagram
• Website

The Afterimage of Remembrance

Memories of a visit to the seaside town of Cadaqués, Spain. This short film began with a transcript of what I remembered and what I forgot about this trip. This film, made from a mixture of existing footage, vaguely evokes images of a place remembered in abstract form.

Clips used from the Prelinger Collection at the Internet Archive
Narration: Caori Murata

Born in 1976 in Fukushima, Japan. Started time-lapse production in 2012 to show the world the current situation in Fukushima, which was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Has created a genre of time-lapse creators and is a creator specializing in time-lapse photography in Japan and abroad. Is engaged in video production for TV, movies, commercials, tourism PR projects, digital signage and more. Believes in continuing to create images that are valuable for people and for posterity. In recent years, has been involved in the production of 12K ultra-high resolution video. Since 2017, has been on NHK's Time-Lapse Japan series as a performer and filmmaker. Fukushima Time-Lapse, his NHK Special, won the 34th ATP Award for Excellence in Documentaries.

• Website
• Youtube
• Vimeo

Existing Lights

I want to convey, through the images in this exhibition, that there are many lights in the world. Even in the night sky and dark forests, many stars and sunlight moving through the trees are difficult for the human eye to see. The time-lapse technique is a moving photograph consisting of a series of individual photographs, and this technique has the power to visualize existing lights more clearly and strongly than ordinary moving images.

Since 2012, I have been exploring the possibilities of time-lapse techniques in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake. At that time, I wanted to convey the unchanging beauty and hope of Fukushima through time-lapse images, contrasting the reality that one part of Fukushima Prefecture, my home, was being emphasized and communicated. The works in this exhibition consist of films from the disaster-stricken areas and parts of Tohoku, including Fukushima, which is the starting point of my desire to continue making images for someone else.

Through ultra-high-definition images shot using cutting-edge techniques, experience the possibilities of the time-lapse technique, the diverse lights that exist in everyday life and the beauty of natural landscapes throughout the Tohoku region.

Born in 1985. Started film production while studying law at Aoyama Gakuin University. Moved to the United States in 2011. Completed the filmmaking program at Los Angeles City College. Has been working as a freelance filmmaker in Tokyo since 2014. Moved to the Netherlands in 2017. Returned in 2020 when the pandemic broke out.

I do everything from shooting to editing as well as interviews in English.
If you would like to make a documentary overseas, please contact me.

■ Major awards and screenings

2018

Best Documentary Award for St. Martin at The Hague Film Awards, The Netherlands

2017

Stamps selected for the 31st Leeds International Film Festival, a U.K. and U.S. Academy Awards accredited film festival

2016

The Trickster won Best Music Video at the New York Jazz Film Festival, USA

In addition, many of my films have been selected at film festivals in North America and Europe. This exhibition is the first time my work has been screened in a public competition in Japan.

• Website
• Youtube
• Instagram

MASAKO

This film is a documentary about my wife who was struggling to live a happy and energetic life in an unfamiliar place. This was filmed at the end of April 2017. It had been about four months since we moved to the Netherlands, and our lives were settling down a bit.

At the time, I was thinking about what was the intrinsic value of a film. I wanted to make films that had value because I was spending my life making them.

When I started thinking about what films are valuable to this world, the scope was so broad that I lost track. Then what about for a country? For this city? I narrowed down the scope even further and asked myself, what kind of films would be valuable to the person who lives next door?

As I thought about it, I concluded that before anything else, I would like to make a film that has value to me. The result is this work called MASAKO.

When I finished it and showed it to my wife, she was delighted as well. It was the moment when the work I had created for myself became valuable to my wife too.

I am very happy to be able to show such a personal work in a gallery like this. I will be very happy if you, the visitors, find some value in this work.