After the screening at the Tribeca film festival, Nemoto, his translator, Wilson, and Teague came on stage for a brief Q & A. You can find the transcript below:
[To Nemoto] How do you work with people who feel suicidal because of systemic problems, such as debt or unemployment?
Ittetsu Nemoto: Unlike in the US, Japan doesn’t have as effective means to deal with these problems on an institutional level. These situations exist because of a hierarchical relationship between people and institutions. I approach these people as equals, and that’s all that you can do.
[To Wilson] How did you first hear about Nemoto’s practice?
Lana Wilson: I actually read about Nemoto’s work in an article in The New Yorker. So I contacted him, travelled to Japan for a meeting, and after we became acquainted, he was generous enough to let me film him eight or nine times over the course of two years
[To a Nemoto & Wilson] How did the film achieve such intimate access to the sessions between Nemoto and the people he counsels?
Nemoto: Lana was very respectful of people’s space, as was her crew. So it was possible for them to be present for such moments.
Wilson: It actually helped that I didn’t speak Japanese. Often when our translator was in the room the subjects felt uncomfortable. But they felt more secure with the presence of only myself and the cinematographer.
[To Teague & Wilson] The subject matter of the film is so sad, yet it isn’t crushing, and there are often lighter moments. How did you approach the task of creating that balance?
David Teague: Yeah that’s definitely something we talk about a lot. And we took our cue from Nemoto and some of his ideas. It’s not really a plot-driven film so we were more interested in some of the emotions and ideas we could communicate as build through it. And Nemoto’s idea that you’re not gonna be able to save someone, or fix depression, or fix sadness, but what you can do is embrace it as a part of life, and look to the beauty and joy of life. And that you actually appreciate a moe profound and stronger sense of joy once you acknowledge sadness and depression. We really wanted to play around with that structurally in the film, and build from harder moments that are followed by lighter moments, particular in Nemoto’s temple, which has a serene beauty. [Nemoto’s three year-old son] Teppei certainly gave us the opportunity to show life, and joy, and energy. And so, we were very careful about when those were placed. Like in the scene where the woman talks about losing her sister to a train collision That was intentionally juxtaposed with a scene of Teppei and Nemoto connecting. And we tried to do that throughout the film.
Wilson: Yeah our take on it was that it’s a film about death in a lot of ways, but it’s using death to understand how to live. So we embraced that perspective throughout the editing process.