Kuro – A film by Joji Koyama and Tujiko Noriko

Directed by Joji Koyama, Tujiko Noriko Cast Tujiko Noriko, Jackie Produced by Joji Koyama, Tujiko Noriko, Gilles Chanial Director of Photography Joji Koyama Music Tujiko Noriko Sound Production Coda to Coda Audio Supervisor Tanya Auclair for Coda to Coda Re-Recording Mixers Will Worsley, Sam Britton, Steve Bond Post-production Time Based Arts Colourist Jack McGinity Post-producer Jo Chounta Camera Assistants Elisa Franck, Antonin Le Guay Sound Recordists Marc Thill, Stan Bertin Graphic Design and Typeface Dinamo

“Kuro is a film about our need for narrative to make sense of our lives. We were interested in how stories become a kind of architecture of our understanding of the world, as well as protection from what we fear and do not understand. However much we protect ourselves with stories, the ways in which we construct, use and interpret them are in constant flux. Perhaps our film is also about the ways in which narrative ultimately tries to articulate the unknowable and how in spite of this, the unknowable always returns to haunt us. We wanted to make a film that plays with, and at moments unhinges the mechanisms of storytelling, in order to produce a cinematic experience that allows for space and ambiguity for the audience to explore.”
—Joji Koyama and Tujiko Noriko

About the directors

Joji Koyama is a Berlin-based filmmaker, animator and graphic artist. His short films, animations and music videos (including Four Tet, Mogwai and Coldcut) have screened internationally, winning awards at the London Short Film Festival and British Animation Awards. In 2015 he began Toupée, a small publishing imprint, and published his first book of short visual stories, Plassein. This was followed by Elsewhere, an illustrated colouring book published by Penguin Books. Working in a wide variety of media and contexts, he has collaborated with musicians Matthew Herbert, as well as theatre maker Ant Hampton.

Tujiko Noriko is a Paris-based musician, singer, songwriter and filmmaker. To date she has released over seventeen highly regarded albums for labels including Editions Mego, Tomlab, Fat Cat and Room 40. In 2003 her album Hard Ni Sasete received an Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica. Tujiko has written music for films, dance, animations and art installations, and has collaborated with renowned musicians Peter Rehberg, Nobukazu Takemura and Lawrence English. In 2005 Tujiko began directing films, which has resulted in the two films Sand and Mini Hawaii and Sun, both of which have screened internationally, including the Foundation Cartier in Paris. Her most recent musical project was the solo album My Ghost Comes Back.