Part of NOWNESS Shorts, Director Makoto Nagahisa’s And So We Put Goldfish In the Pool is a Sundance Award-winning coming of age tale submersed in the theme of adolescent rebellion.
It won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2017 and tells the true story of 400 fishes that were found in the pool of a high school located in Saitama, Japan just outside of Tokyo and the story of the four fifteen year old girls that placed them there.
Director Nagahisa briefly talks about the story;
“The girls empathize with the goldfish. They release them from their tank into a swimming pool, but is that really freedom? The girls themselves wish to leave their city. However, even if they do, just like their childhood friend Umi, they’re not sure they could call themselves free.
“They release the goldfish from their tank into a swimming pool, but is that really freedom?”
“It may seem like a negative message, but I approve of that situation and reality. ‘I am alive’ is a very simple message, but maybe that’s all we need. These are some feelings which I tried to convey through my film. I also wanted to bring a speed, dialogue, and sound that doesn’t exist in current filmmaking.”
Press play to watch the short film now.
