This year Watershed is celebrating creativity and partnership with Japan across our cinema and creative technology programme, building on over ten years of partnership that began with YCAM and the creation of Playable City Tokyo, both of which were supported by British Council. 

In December 2023 Watershed formalised a new partnership with the brilliant Knowledge Capital in Osaka. Brought together by Invest Bristol Bath our two organisations have committed to finding ways to connect our creative communities, with a focus on *Omishiroi. This builds on 10 years of working alongside partners in Japan.

Knowledge Capital’s belief in bringing together human creativity and technology to generate value – driving social change through innovation, is one we share. We are super excited to explore how this connects to the ideas embedded in our own programmes as we present R&D You Can See (a programme which aims to create more accessible, fun ways for people to witness and participate in some of the Studio community’s research and development projects) and the development of Undershed, our new immersive gallery. 

Japan is a country that has long excited and inspired our audiences and communities – blending heritage and invention, elegant design and cyberpunk aesthetics, craft and technology. For 2024 we’ve been excited to develop numerous opportunities for audiences to immerse themselves in Japanese cinema, join talks and engage with new artworks and ideas, with more to come throughout the year.  

In The Cinema

We kicked off 2024 with January’s 'Return to Ozu’ season, screening four late-era classics from master of the poetic domestic, Yasujirō Ozu, plus Hayao Miyazaki’s fantastical Ghibli animation The Boy and the Heron. February saw the return of the annual Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme, featuring seven titles themed around ‘Memories, Time and Reflection in Japanese Cinema’ much to the delight of very appreciative audiences - in addition to Wim Wenders’ latest feature Perfect Days – now heading into its 8th week screening at Watershed! 

Then in March, our cinemas saw the latest release from Drive My Car director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, with a Preview screening of his eco-parable Evil Does Not Exist, as well as Hirokazu Kore-eda's (Shoplifters, Broker) Monster which features the final score of visionary Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who sits at the heart of another March release – Opus.  

From Pervasive Media Studio...

Omosiroi in Osaka 

In December, Watershed were delighted to formalise a new partnership with the brilliant Knowledge Capital in Osaka. Brought together by Invest Bristol Bath our two organisations have committed to finding ways to connect our creative communities. Knowledge Capital believe in bringing together human creativity and technology to generate all kinds of value –  driving social change through innovation. They have an amazing space in central Osaka including; a Lab where they test experimental work with audiences, public parks and city plazas, and (coming soon) an experimental performance venue. It all feels a bit like a (bigger!) version of our approach to R&D you can see, and the developing plans for a new immersive gallery at Undershed.  

What brings this all together for Knowledge Capital is a desire to work with Omosiroi (a Japanese concept translating roughly as a combination of amusing, fascinating, fun...). We are super excited about how this connects to the ideas embedded in our own Playable City programme. Expect to see some lunchtime talks coming up from members of the Knowledge Capital community while we make plans for longer term partnership projects. 

Other Minds Goes to Tokyo 

Building on our long-standing relationships in Tokyo (supported by British Council Japan), we are also delighted to be working with Creative Civic Base Tokyo this year. They are a creative technology studio (a little like our own Pervasive Media Studio) which is feeding into civic infrastructure, supporting artists to experiment and inviting the public to explore their social imaginations. We have spent some time getting to know each other through visits and conversations and are excited about the themes that they are exploring this year; artificial intelligence, performing arts, access and participatory platforms. 

We will work together to explore what developments in artificial intelligence tell us about how we relate to each other and the world. Our recent commission How (not) to get hit by a self-driving car team is already in residence in Tokyo and we hope to connect our maker communities later in the Summer to inspire and learn from each other. 

Yuru Music Jam Sessions  

We are deep in planning with the brilliant Paraorchestra, Drake Music and Sony Japan around our shared interests in music and technology for all. Our collaboration builds on Sony’s Yuru Music and we will be running a design event with disabled musicians and creative technologists to prototype ideas for new assistive instruments this September. This will culminate in a sharing in the Café & Bar on 23 September.  

Watershed believes that to address the complex challenges our world is facing, we need to develop new imaginative capacity - and the best way to do that is together. Whether it is watching a film, creating a piece of art or supporting a creative community, togetherness and collaboration is what makes a hopeful future possible.