US Premiere: Masao Adachi, REVOLUTION +1

e-flux Screening Room is very pleased to present the US premiere of Masao Adachi’s REVOLUTION+1 (2022, 80 minutes) on Thursday, July 6 at 7pm. The screening will be followed by a video discussion with Adachi moderated by Ethan Spigland.

In REVOLUTION+1 Masao Adachi constructs a semi-fictional narrative around the assassination of Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022. Drawing on details from the life of the assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, Adachi tells the story from Yamagami’s perspective, focusing less on his broader political beliefs and more on his increasing resentment toward the church that caused his family’s ruin.

“REVOLUTION+1 reflects the political and economic situation of Japan and the world, both of which are heading toward collapse and crisis. Since films only exist to be screened, there is a battle between the imagination of the creator and the viewer. I think this battle expresses the prevailing political situation as faced by both the creator and the viewer. […] As a filmmaker, I felt compelled to express my dissent by screening this film on the exact day of Abe’s funeral, even though the film was unfinished at the time. When I proposed this plan to the cast and crew, they agreed, and so I carried it out. So to answer your question, the intention was to practice a method that transcends the supposed binary between film and politics, revolution and art.”
—Masao Adachi in an interview with Go Hirasawa and Ethan Spigland, e-flux journal #135 (April 2023). You can read the full interview here.

Masao Adachi, REVOLUTION+1 (2022, 80 minutes)
Tatsuya Kawakami’s mother becomes a member of a religious group after her husband commits suicide, and makes a large donation to the organization. Her three children are forced to live in poverty, and her eldest son, who is blind in one eye due to illness, takes his own life. Kawakami comes to believe that the religious group has ruined his life, so he creates a homemade gun and carries out an assassination plot against former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who has close ties to the religious group, which has been accused of siphoning off money from its members.

For more information, contact program@e-flux.com.

Accessibility                   
–Two flights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at 172 Classon Avenue.        
–For elevator access, please RSVP to program@e-flux.com. The building has a freight elevator which leads into the e-flux office space. Entrance to the elevator is nearest to 180 Classon Ave (a garage door). We have a ramp for the steps within the space.                 
–e-flux has an ADA-compliant bathroom. There are no steps between the Screening Room and this bathroom.