https://rimayamazaki.com Rima Yamazaki Films Mon, 08 Dec 2025 04:08:00 +0000 https://rimayamazaki.com en https://rimayamazaki.com/Home-Page Sat, 03 Aug 2019 22:45:07 +0000 Rima Yamazaki Films https://rimayamazaki.com/Home-Page <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8ce06d4b103f64b773f55920c70e2896d6cc19ea8fc4194d0a43ac5b1355aca7/nyc2.png" data-mid="247108231" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8ce06d4b103f64b773f55920c70e2896d6cc19ea8fc4194d0a43ac5b1355aca7/nyc2.png" /> https://rimayamazaki.com/Films Sat, 16 May 2020 20:32:21 +0000 Rima Yamazaki Films https://rimayamazaki.com/Films https://rimayamazaki.com/Here-Then-Now Fri, 22 Nov 2024 23:24:45 +0000 Rima Yamazaki Films https://rimayamazaki.com/Here-Then-Now Here/Then/Now (working title) Forthcoming <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8110729901add5c009888f43a65c6651344f2ef22c9b07d24221d87bfa41cdd1/nyc.jpg" data-mid="223418547" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8110729901add5c009888f43a65c6651344f2ef22c9b07d24221d87bfa41cdd1/nyc.jpg" /> There is a trace of violence in every landscape, however invisible it is, however deep down it was buried. A meditative journey across Manhattan, this film weaves together present-day cityscapes of New York and the city’s often-overlooked histories. As contemporary footage of the city unfolds alongside voices recounting life and landscapes in the early days of Manhattan, the film questions how the city transforms over time, how memories are forgotten, how histories are erased, and what we can see and cannot see. Support the Project Please consider supporting the production of Here/Then/Now (working title) by making a tax-deductible donation through my fiscal sponsor if you have means. Your contributions will directly cover the production expenses. ︎︎︎ DONATE The map above shows some of the the locations filmed for this film project. This film project is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support has been provided by a grant from The Puffin Foundation. https://rimayamazaki.com/Sidewalk-Superintendent Mon, 08 Dec 2025 04:08:00 +0000 Rima Yamazaki Films https://rimayamazaki.com/Sidewalk-Superintendent Sidewalk Superintendent 20268 minutesEnglish <img width="1000" height="750" width_o="1000" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bf09bc961f652ac28cf71fc3b95c9474a8337b0455a97cc5e0f9d829134a12cd/sidewalk-superintendant_still.jpg" data-mid="241547235" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bf09bc961f652ac28cf71fc3b95c9474a8337b0455a97cc5e0f9d829134a12cd/sidewalk-superintendant_still.jpg" /> New York is under construction all the time. Construction fences are a ubiquitous sight in the city. In 2013, the New York City Council passed a law mandating that all construction fences be painted hunter green to standardize the look and that viewing panels be provided on them. I started taking pictures of construction fence viewing panels with an iPhone several years ago. What is behind the fencing? What can we see through these panels? Slideshowing photos of viewing panels, along with field recordings from construction sites and testimonies from New York City Planning Commission public hearings, Sidewalk Superintendent is a reflection on cityscapes, gentrification, housing and affordability crisis, memories, and the act of photographing. Screening 2026 Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (Netherlands) https://rimayamazaki.com/Schist Mon, 11 Mar 2024 01:48:49 +0000 Rima Yamazaki Films https://rimayamazaki.com/Schist Schist 2024 15 minutes English Distributor: Video Data Bank A rock. Buildings. Trees. Nothing happens. But something is always moving. People walk by. Time passes by. Seasons change. The Earth’s tectonic plates are in constant but imperceivable motion, which slowly move apart or crash together. When landmasses collided about 450 million years ago, the collision created a single continent known as Pangea. Movement, heat, and pressure over millions of years transformed shale into schist. New York City is built on this tough, old rock called Manhattan schist, which holds skyscrapers. While most of Manhattan schist lies under the ground, the ancient rock sometimes interrupts the urban fabric. Outcrops of the rock appear throughout Manhattan, especially on the northern part of the island. Observing a massive Manhattan schist outcrop on a quiet residential block, this film examines the dichotomy between nature and human life, the past and present, human time and cosmic time, and stillness and motion. https://rimayamazaki.com/Title-I Sat, 15 Oct 2022 10:26:55 +0000 Rima Yamazaki Films https://rimayamazaki.com/Title-I Title I 202213 minutes English Distributor: Video Data Bank The 1949 Housing Act, often seen as the beginning of urban renewal, reshaped the landscapes of many American cities. One of the nation’s largest urban renewal projects was the Lincoln Square Title I Project in New York City led by the powerful public official Robert Moses, which created Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts along with Fordham University’s Manhattan Campus and middle- to high-income housing. The area selected for the project was a working-class, predominantly Black neighborhood with a large population of Puerto Ricans. While it was a tight-knit community with a vibrant culture, Moses declared the area a “blighted slum.” More than 7000 families and 800 businesses were forced to relocate, and the community was dispersed. Lincoln Center, which emerged as a product of urban renewal, has helped to make New York City the world capital of art and culture ever since. This film reflects on the history of the Lincoln Center site by “listening” to the voices of residents who opposed the Lincoln Square Title I project, which are narrated in subtitles. These are quotes from the public hearing before the City Planning Commission, held on September 11, 1957 at City Hall in Manhattan. https://rimayamazaki.com/When-the-Hand-Touches-the-Sky Sun, 20 Nov 2022 02:24:14 +0000 Rima Yamazaki Films https://rimayamazaki.com/When-the-Hand-Touches-the-Sky When the Hand Touches the Sky 202111 minutes English Distributor: Video Data Bank Hands are part of our body, but they might be too close to think. As the pandemic forced us to change our way of living and think about ourselves, it seems we have become paying more attention to our hands and the act of touching. This poetic, personal film meditates on hands, human senses, physicality, and bodiliness. ︎︎︎ Download a zine version (PDF) https://rimayamazaki.com/The-World-Must-Be-Measured-by-Eye Sat, 03 Aug 2019 17:18:30 +0000 Rima Yamazaki Films https://rimayamazaki.com/The-World-Must-Be-Measured-by-Eye The World Must Be Measured by Eye 2019 65 minutesDistributor: Video Data Bank <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/831519fee78ed084915bf04a9a53354b4278d1466030e9e19f1b7b1c2d3fce94/Ellen-1.jpg" data-mid="48733040" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/831519fee78ed084915bf04a9a53354b4278d1466030e9e19f1b7b1c2d3fce94/Ellen-1.jpg" /> Ellen Altfest is known for her still life paintings in which she renders every detail of her subjects on a one-to-one scale. The World Must Be Measured by Eye follows the meticulous, repetitive and painstaking creative process of Altfest — the painter studies the subject, mixes paint, matches colors, measures the distance and puts the paint on the canvas with a small brush. Through observing Altfest at work, The World Must Be Measured by Eye examines the act of creation and the act of seeing. As the painter’s excessive realism and careful composition push the painting to the realm of abstraction, the film also explores the boundary between representation and abstraction.&nbsp; Screening 2020 National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC) <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/507bcb700f796051f206c8b5bdff093ec0bc5d1256fe534a9460186c01780308/Ellen-12.jpg" data-mid="49830022" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/507bcb700f796051f206c8b5bdff093ec0bc5d1256fe534a9460186c01780308/Ellen-12.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/38cb44e2695572d4826f89aceeaf0cc08aacd4832319f538cc8807de92f56d81/Ellen-2.jpg" data-mid="49830153" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/38cb44e2695572d4826f89aceeaf0cc08aacd4832319f538cc8807de92f56d81/Ellen-2.jpg" /> https://rimayamazaki.com/Learning-from-Buffalo Sat, 03 Aug 2019 17:27:43 +0000 Rima Yamazaki Films https://rimayamazaki.com/Learning-from-Buffalo Learning from Buffalo 2018 100 minutes English Distributor: Video Data Bank <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e49011862f8d7018d08d8a3b390a0e0eb6e8c020ad82d78437b25d83522d5900/learning-from-buffalo_2.jpg" data-mid="48732873" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e49011862f8d7018d08d8a3b390a0e0eb6e8c020ad82d78437b25d83522d5900/learning-from-buffalo_2.jpg" /> Buffalo, New York, which was once a prosperous city, is home to several architectural masterpieces built in the late 19th century to the early 20th century, such as the Darwin D. Martin House by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Guaranty Building by Louis Sullivan, and Kleinhans Music Hall by Eliel and Eero Saarinen. While some important buildings, including the Larkin Building by Wright, were demolished, the preservation movement has been active for the past several years. Architecture is embraced as a treasure, but it can be a burden to the city at the same time. Like many other American cities, Buffalo has suffered from economic downturn for decades. Industries have left and the population has declined almost by half. One of the issues that Buffalo has been facing is vacant properties. Since 2000, the city has demolished thousands of vacant homes and buildings to clean up some neighborhoods, which created vacant lots in turn. Exploring the architecture and cityscape of the post-industrial American city, this film meditates on the relationship between architecture, city, society, and history. Selected Film Festivals &amp; Screenings 2020National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC) 2019Cinéma du réel, International Competition (Paris, France)Anthology Film Archives&nbsp; (New York, NY) 2018Buffalo International Film Festival&nbsp; (Buffalo, NY) Awards 2020Honorable Mention for the SAH Award for Film and Video, Society of Architectural Historians 2019Special Mention for the Library Award, Cinéma du réel Press“Cinéma du réel 2019: Learning from Buffalo by Rima Yamazaki”by Alonso Castro. Desistfilm (March 15, 2019) <img width="3840" height="2160" width_o="3840" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/305b383e1eb9e28ce6ca2567a72da33b7c6ad9b9071c7e9cf290bc9aebb7edcc/learning-from-buffalo_11.jpg" data-mid="213437050" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/305b383e1eb9e28ce6ca2567a72da33b7c6ad9b9071c7e9cf290bc9aebb7edcc/learning-from-buffalo_11.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b061ee2895454ae5fee84ef3adb5f2c6e526266fc064dff4c7b88cdf919178c8/learning-from-buffalo_15.jpg" data-mid="48732876" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b061ee2895454ae5fee84ef3adb5f2c6e526266fc064dff4c7b88cdf919178c8/learning-from-buffalo_15.jpg" /> https://rimayamazaki.com/Nature-and-Geometry-in-the-Park Mon, 01 Jun 2020 21:03:27 +0000 Rima Yamazaki Films https://rimayamazaki.com/Nature-and-Geometry-in-the-Park Nature and Geometry in the Park Distributor: Video Data Bank Urban parks consist of two major elements: nature and man-made forms. Parks play an important role in the urban environment, offering relief in everyday life. While parks provide green spaces, they are not natural spaces; they are highly designed. This series of short videos explores parks, focusing on form. Case 1: Herbert Von King Park 2017 9 minutes This video, shot in the spring of 2017, features Herbert Von King Park which is located in the heart of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Von King Park is one of the first parks in the history of Brooklyn, with a design submitted by Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who is famous for designing Central Park, and Calvert Vaux. The park was originally named Tompkins Park, after former New York governor Daniel D. Tompkins, and was renamed in 1985 in honor of Herbert Von King, a longtime local community organizer who was nicknamed the “mayor of Bedford Stuyvesant.” A unique Cultural Arts Center, equipped with an outdoor amphitheater, was added later on thanks to the community’s efforts. Case 2: Fort Greene Park2017 10 minutes Fort Greene Park was originally the site of a fortification built for the Revolutionary War. After it was designated as a park in 1847, it was redesigned by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Fort Greene Park is a vibrant recreation space for the community in Downtown Brooklyn today. Case 3: WNYC Transmitter Park2024 6 minutes WNYC Transmitter Park is a relatively new park located on the waterfront in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which opened in 2012. As the name itself suggests, it was once the site of the public radio station WNYC’s original AM transmitter towers. The radio towers on this 1.6-acre site were in use from 1937 to 1990—back then the station was operated by the city. In addition to the lawn, the park includes a pier over the East River.