WORKS
book-paper-scissors
2019
Nobuyoshi Kikuchi is a man contentedly out of step with the times. Forgoing modern technology, the 77-year-old master book designer (soutei-ka) has utilized the traditional tools of scissors, rulers, and pencils to design over 15,000 extraordinary book covers by hand throughout his decades-long career. With careful, philosophical consideration of every aspect of the process, Kikuchi also chooses the paper and ink to best represent the essence of each book. Filmed over three years, this passion project from Hirokazu Kore-eda protege Nanako Hirose (whose late father was also a book designer) matches Kikuchi’s contemplative and considerate approach to his craft, offering a thoroughly measured portrait of the pursuit of perfection and 94 minutes of ASMR for design enthusiasts and bibliophiles.
Selected at Busan Int'l Film Festival and Doc Leipzig, and won a Special Mention Award at Tokyo FILMeX in 2019.
OMRON Taiyo "Next Chapter"
2022
Omron Taiyo is a device manufacturing factory which became the first company in Japan that allowed people with disabilities to work as full time employees. This film was made for their 50th anniversary event which took place in April, 2022. The 10mins short documentary tells the story of their history, their accomplishments and the future they envision.
2022
"DREAM BOX" (2022) is a short film originally created for the Tokyo 48hours film festival. Under the restrictions of time, budget, genre, and themes, we were able to pull out something bold. The film tells the story of a dog slaughterhouse in Japan. Each personified character represents a dog we have encountered in life. It was nominated for 7 categories and won the Best Sound Design award. I love creating a strong team with passionate and talented professionals and being able to create something powerful.
DREAM BOX
petalhead - "Daylight"
2022
Directed Work
Seaside Shuffle (Director's ver)
2023
BIO
Amy Aoyama is a film producer based in Tokyo.
Born in Osaka in 1992, Aoyama moved to Vancouver on her own at the age of 15 to expand her world view. As the only international student from Japan, she quickly learnt English and made friends from around the world who she keeps in touch with to this day. Aoyama studied Cultural Anthropology at Waseda
University and University of Toronto. She began her career as a filmmaker in her senior year in college, by making students film and working as a videographer for school projects. After graduating, she directed radio, documentary TV and some music videos. In 2017, Aoyama participated in Naomi Kawase’s
film “Vision” as an assistant director and an on-set
translator for Juliette Binoche. She was told by Binoche that she might become a good producer, and she decided to take that path by joining AOI Pro. as a production manager.
Aoyama also worked at Wieden and Kennedy Japan as a producer shortly after leaving AOI Pro, to enrich her experience working in the advertisement industry. Her first produced documentary film, “book-paper-scissors” was premiered in Busan International Film Festival and DOK Leipzig in 2019, and won a special mention award at the 20th edition of Tokyo FILMeX. She has been selected to Rotterdam Lab and Berlinale EFM co-production visitors program in 2020, and was selected by VIPO as an emerging producer to attend Marché du Film at Cannes Film Festival in 2024.
She is currently running her own production company: