14.05.25, 20:30, Only Yesterday (1991)

In a languid summer, 27-year-old Taeko leaves the concrete bustle of Tokyo behind and travels to the countryside in search of peace and nostalgia. On the farm, she is carried away by the simple rhythms of rural life, and fragments of her childhood emerge - the dreams, infatuations and small disappointments of her younger self. In Only Yesterday, director Isao Takahata weaves a subtle and philosophical portrait of coming of age and the ephemerality of childlike innocence. The film unfolds as a tender meditation on who we were and who we want to be, with a rhythm that breathes like a warm summer breeze.

As always, Studio Ghibli's animation manages to reveal the beauty of the everyday in a world of colour. Matching the films affection for vanishing traditions is its fascination with Beni, a technique for distilling colour from the bright orange Safflower plant. The unique shade of green produced through this method is of great cultural importance in Japan and can be found in a resembling ceremonial and everyday applications. Before the film we will discuss this special colour method and its symbolic power through a short make-up tutorial.

This film is introduced by colour scientist Maria Boto Ordonez. Before the screening, we will watch the short film Beni (2016, Sasaki Maiko).

In collaboration with the Ecology of Colour research project at KASK & Conservatorium and Tokyo Polytechnic University.