KOTA KINABALU: “Our streets are filled with artificial colours,” says the main protagonist, Sachio Yoshioka, in the documentary film “MURASAKI” which hints at its strong environmental theme.
The 77-minute documentary, which in translation means ‘purple’, premiered for the first time in South East Asia at the Borneo Eco Film Festival (BEFF), held at the National Department for Culture and Arts Complex here yesterday.
The film introduced by the Japanese Foundation of Kuala Lumpur tells the story of Sachio and his textile and dyeing factory in Kyoto, Japan, which employs ancient dyeing techniques that dates back to between seventh and eighth century Japan.
Speaking about the film, director Mika Kawase said that she found Sachio’s textile factory and its methods to be extremely beautiful.
“Whoever visits (the textile factory) will feel like they would want to make a film out of it,” she said during a press interview.
Mika said the independent film produced with a grant from the Cultural Agency of Japan is meant as a message to herself so as to never forget the nuances of each passing day.
“What is the ‘real’ thing? And what are the things we forget in our daily lives? We have to face the fact that we are always forgetting,” Mika said.
Additionally, Mika wanted to portray the spirit of someone like Sachio, who has never given up on his values and ways.
The film highlights the difficult and elaborate methods of procuring dye from plants, and flowers – ‘ancient materials’ – to dye textiles.
Mika said, she had, for six months, continuously visited the Yashioka Dye Factory and Sachio since the first time she met him. After that, she followed Sachio for a year, trailing his daily life and even stayed two weeks at the factory for the shooting of the documentary.
In the same breath, the film narrates about a community intent on protecting nature, history and culture through the other characters surrounding the factory.
“Technology has taken over and there is an element of human arrogance to this,” says Sachio in the film, who lives by the principle of respecting nature and earth.
In explaining this, Sachio said that he started using natural dyes and the century old technique because he felt affected by the pollution of Japan in the 1960s.
Both first-time visitors to Malaysia and Sabah, Mika and Sachio expressed surprise when Murasaki was invited to be screened at BEFF.
“In olden days, people respected nature but now in modernity, people try to conquer nature. We should go back to older times,” Sachio told the press.
He added that it feels great that Murasaki is screened at a place which echoes the message of environmentalism. The methods are part of history and part of the people and in following the ancient methods, it is a symbol of respect to the people in the past and culture, Sachio said.
BEFF will be screening many more of such films today. For more information visit: http://www.beff.org.my or its Facebook page.