The Interview with a Witch 
film 19min
2018
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exhibition:
Quiet Dialogue - Invisible Existences and Us at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

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​本作は「魔女」としてハーブ喫茶を営む女性へのインタビューをもとに創作された第一部と、魔女狩りの歴史を辿る架空の少女の物語の第二部に構成される。寓話の世界に登場する魔術を使う恐ろしい老母という魔女の一般的なイメージとは異なり、魔女狩り以前からヨーロッパに存在した魔女とは薬草の知識や産婆の役割を持つ社会的に自立した賢い女性達であった。「垣根を越える人」というその語源の様に、性差や階級、そして現実とフィクションの境界線を飛び越える可能性を持つ存在である「魔女」について考察する作品。

This is a film based on an interview with a lady who works as a witch in a herb cafe as well as a fictional story of a girl who researches about the history of witch-hunts. In contrast to the general and stereotypical image of a witch, as a dreadful old woman in fairy tales, the people who were accused of witchcraft were in fact wise women who had a deep knowledge about herbs or worked as a midwife. More importantly, they had attained social independence at the time of Middle age in Europe. Referring to the origin of the word “Witch”, it describes a person who can go over the boundary, the story in this film searches for the possibility of going beyond the boundary between sex or class as well as fiction and reality.

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