2018 NEXT Section Sundance Trading Card Series: #20. Aska Matsumiya (Skate Kitchen)

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2017 discoveries”.
Aska Matsumiya: 1. A Life in Waves. A documentary that explores the life and innovations of electronic music pioneer, Suzanne Ciani.
2. TV series by Leonard Bernstein which started in 1958. The Young People’s Concerts at the New York Philharmonic are the longest- running series of family concerts of classical music in the world.
3. Gravitational waves prove Einstein’s theory of general relativity – Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity states that space and time are unified into one continuum: space-time. Objects in the universe, no matter their size, warp space-time as they move, creating ripples known as gravitational waves. Until recently, however, that theory was just that: a theory. But new technological advancements allow astrophysicists to measure the massive gravitational waves created by huge objects in deep space. Usually these come from black holes and neutron stars millions and millions of light years away, so their waves are incredibly faint by the time they reach Earth. In September 2017, gravitational waves were detected by three separate observatories at once. With all that data, scientists are better able to pinpoint where the waves are coming from, and learn more about them and the universe at large. Better yet, it proves the existence of gravitational waves – and therefore space-time – once and for all.

Lavallee: You’ve been collaborating with Crystal Moselle from the onset, did your work on THAT ONE DAY (which serves as a docu precursor) turn out to serve as a template here or was the chalkboard erased and you started fresh?
Matsumiya: “THAT ONE DAY” was a piece that inspired to be “the skate kitchen” but I had to start fresh to find its own tone and texture and world for the new film.

Lavallee: The Miu Miu short felt synthpop, garage punk, Jesus and Mary Chain-ish – what are some of the predominant instruments used here?
Matsumiya: Lots of space echo echo echo echo …

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