HiLo presents Snack Sakura, a short film following Canadian photographer Greg Girard as he journeys across Japan, searching for a place he once knew. We join him from town to town, bar to bar, as he moves across the country, reflecting on memory, life between cultures, and what it means to make a picture.
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Greg’s work spans decades of living in Asia, from his seminal work City of Darkness Revisited chronicling life in Hong Kong’s notorious Kowloon Walled City, to Phantom Shanghai, a haunting record of a megacity in transition.
Greg’s work spans decades of living in Asia, from his seminal work City of Darkness Revisited chronicling life in Hong Kong’s notorious Kowloon Walled City, to Phantom Shanghai, a haunting record of a megacity in transition.
In Snack Sakura, he returns to Japan, reminiscing on a country he first encountered in his twenties and a life he could have chosen. A continuation of his previous work, Tokyo-Yokosuka 1976-1983 and JAL 76-88, this new body of work surprises in its intimacy and deeply personal perspective—a new approach of Greg Girard revealed in our short film Snack Sakura.
For us, Greg’s photography has been both an enduring inspiration and an enigma. We are so grateful for Greg’s trust and the indispensable support from Mimi Wada, without which this project would not have been possible.
Director: Jia Li
Co-director: Joshua Frank
Producers: Mimi Wada & Jia Li
Cinematographers: Jia Li and Joshua Frank
Editor: Yiwei Chen
Finishing Editor: Jia Li
Miracle Worker & Karaoke: Mimi Wada
Music Composition: Carver Audain
Sound Mix: Kristofer Riós
Translation: Susan Wu
Special Thanks: David Pandt, Alannah Clamp
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Co-director: Joshua Frank
Producers: Mimi Wada & Jia Li
Cinematographers: Jia Li and Joshua Frank
Editor: Yiwei Chen
Finishing Editor: Jia Li
Miracle Worker & Karaoke: Mimi Wada
Music Composition: Carver Audain
Sound Mix: Kristofer Riós
Translation: Susan Wu
Special Thanks: David Pandt, Alannah Clamp
