Sometimes it’s the simple idea that can give rise to the greatest creativity.  Nicholas Barker decided to covertly film people dozing on Tokyo subway trains; from this apparently unassuming material he created his magnificent short film, TOKYO DREAMS.

The project sounds fairly straightforward, but making the film was anything but easy; requiring novel solutions to considerable technical difficulties.  For instance, Barker was determined to remain inconspicuous and therefore had to take all the shots with a camera held in his lap or hanging around his neck.   Unable to look through the viewfinder, he spent weeks patiently developing a technique that allowed him to get the quality of beautifully framed shots that we see in the final cut.

“I have been making TV films and commercials for 20 years, so this little film – though modest in length – had a lot of craft thrown at it.”  Part of this craft is in the transformation of these apparently random observations.  Barker assembles the fragments so as to maintain a sense of spontaneity while also allowing room for tiny thematic connections to reveal themselves, like melodic motifs giving shape to an ambiguous harmonic progression.  In this way he constructs an observational essay that may at first seem casual and haphazard but is as carefully crafted as a poem.

“I need to stare at things in order to make sense of them.”

Some viewers might be troubled by the ethics of a film which secretly scrutinises strangers.  Barker says on his website: “I shoot…material in a detached, observational manner, which has often been described as voyeuristic. I make no apologies for this. I need to stare at things in order to make sense of them.”  And the gaze of TOKYO DREAMS is a kindly one.  The hidden camera does not try to exploit, but to seek connection; to comprehend and empathise.  The film is full of warmth and humour, never cruelty: it is a touching, revealing study of ourselves – vulnerable, exhausted, content, troubled, in love, lonely, exasperated, or happy.

Barker‘s website again: “A good piece of film making stays with you and wriggles around in your head. If it doesn’t wriggle around, it has failed.”  TOKYO DREAMS is definitely a wriggler – in a good way.

TOKYO DREAMS screens as part of the EXISTENTIAL programme of shorts on 11:00 Friday 20th and 23:15 Tuesday 24th. If you buy a ticket for this or any other shorts programme, you will be able to watch JUST BEFORE LOSING EVERYTHING (AVANT QUE DE TOUT PERDRE), a powerful standalone short which we strongly recommend.