Peter Taylor: Dear Chiemi, it’s our first time speaking and it's very impressive how widely you’ve been screening your work in these last years. I’ve somehow managed to missed it but like others who will have the chance to get to know Chiyo now, it’s Vdrome who have introduced us. I’m very grateful. 

Chiyo your grandmother has a really wonderful presence throughout the film's twelve or thirteen minutes—whether she’s in frame or not. I was wondering if you could tell us a little more about her and your inspirations for Chiyo the film? Ideas that you were responding to – maybe even just some practical things—which allowed the film to take form? 

Chiemi Shimada: Chiyo is my mother’s mother. She lives on her own by my uncle’s family in the suburbs of Saitama prefecture. It was around late 2017 when my mother informed me of my grandmother’s living situation, that her mobility is more restricted because of her age, and the fact that our family cannot provide her with enough care. At the time, I was studying abroad and I came to acknowledge my absence in our relationship. I decided to make a film as a way of spending more time with her and to get a better understanding of her and the struggles she faced.

During the research period, I came across Margaret Tait’s film A Portrait of Ga. I fell in love with the way in which she portrayed intimacy with her mother. I was thinking about the film when shooting Chiyo. There's a shot in which my grandmother opens a wrapper of a Japanese confectionery that is kind of an homage shot to Tait’s film.

I was also thinking of what ‘home’ means. Is it my family? Is it the house itself? Is it the country? I think these questions and my gaze are thrown into the film.

PT: Though family spaces are not always easy and you don’t shy away from that, I was really interested in how you generated such an intimate and contemplative experience through Chiyo. The film almost becomes a temporary home in itself. As in Margaret Tait’s filmmaking, would you attribute some of these possibilities to those offered by your Bolex camera and shooting on 16mm film? Was this a new way of working for you?

CS: I borrowed a Bolex camera from university and took it to Japan. This was my first experience of shooting on 16mm on my own. I still remember it was very scary and thrilling somehow. I was asking my friends for some advice. Actually, the camera had problems during the shoot and I had to get it serviced twice. Having said that, I loved shooting with the Bolex. I loved the limitations of film stocks I had, the duration for each shot, the weight of the camera and the camera's loud sounds when shooting. The camera made the whole process slower and I think it was needed for this film. The process was very meditative.

PT: I guess though 16mm film was the shooting format you might have edited it digitally so it’s also something hybrid?

CS: Yes, I edited the film digitally. I wanted to test different structures and it was for the practicality of screening the film. I only have experience of editing analogue films digitally and I like the flexibility of it. I want to test out analogue editing though. I’m interested in how my decision-making would change.

PT: The sounds in your film are so rich too. Would you like to speak more about that?

CS: I tried to collect as many field recordings as possible while I was in Japan. At some point, I was lost when editing the film, but I think the recordings of the conversations steered the film. After the picture lock, I started to collaborate with my friend Ed Chappell for sound design and mixing. This stage really added another layer to the film. As I didn’t have a good speaker or headphone, I wasn’t aware of so many details. He helped me to realise how important they were.

PT: As well as being contemplative, the film gives so much energy too. The images and sound you’ve chosen, through to the short takes and in camera edits. Did you end up shooting a lot and over a longer period or was it in more concentrated moments? The film feels effortless, but I imagine that might take a lot of work? Is it almost all shot in Yashio? That’s close to Tokyo but I imagine feels far away? Even further from where you’d been living in London?

CS: I spent about two weeks on the shoot. It was very intense to spend most of the time with my grandmother at her house, talking, helping her chores and cooking. At the time, these were equally important gestures to filmmaking.
Ninety percent of the film was shot in Yashio. The rest was shot in surrounding areas. The temple scene was shot at a temple in Tokyo where my family's tombstones are. 
My initial idea for the film was more focused on my own feelings of being away from home. Six months prior to shooting Chiyo, I went back to Japan to film two rolls of 16mm film without a clear intention. It became a pilot film, At Altitude. This version helped me to think further what direction I needed to go. For Chiyo, I kept filming the shots from aircraft windows that are in At Altitude. (I made some friends who sat next to me...) But I ended up not using any of this footage.

PT: At the very beginning of the film, your grandmother speaks of “clear and unclear dreams”, how you can remember these better when you don’t sleep so well. I wanted to ask you about the river she mentions. When I’m watching at home and place names are mentioned in films, a weak point that I have is that rather than leaving them to my imagination, I immediately start googling! I’m lucky to be able to ask you instead?

CS: I actually have no idea which river she is talking about. It might be Ayase river but I'm not so certain. I'll ask her and will let you know!