NOWNESS — Toma Unrestored
7 min, 2025

︎︎︎Link

In the Japanese city of Nara, Shingo Sakuma and Jin-Yi Liu have preserved an 18th century Shinto priest family’s residence on the edge of a primeval forest leading to the Kasugataisha Shrine. Now an art space, Toma House has been restored from near-collapse by the Toma family’s descendants, standing with the monumental architecture and spiritual landmarks of Nara’s historic Takabatakecho district, and the forest’s free-roaming deer – said to be sacred messengers of the Shinto gods. While exhibitions, workshops, and artist residencies occupy the space, parts of the property remain untouched, as Shingo and Jin-Yi enlist traditional craftspeople to restore its individual elements.

“Toma House exists in a state of in-betweenness. This film is about what remains unfinished – and how that state of incompleteness gives a space its life. I wanted to explore the emotional architecture. What does it mean to live with the past? And what does it mean to care for a place not as a possession, but as a living being?”

Following a new phase of the project for the short documentary Toma Unrestored, Tokyo-based filmmaker Sybilla Patrizia captures Toma House as a vessel for art, memory, and reverence over the restoration of two sets of fusuma sliding doors, originally painted by Katsuyama Takugan. Centering the quiet power of space as the weathered screens are revived and reinstated, the film studies emotional architecture through the connection to the house in its incomplete state, honoring the living legacy and energy of rooms shaped by time and memory.

- via NOWNESS

Commissioned by Takabatake Trust

Featuring: Jin-Yi Liu and Shingo Sakuma
Director and Producer:  Sybilla Patrizia
Editor: Nanako Kawasaki
Cinematography:  Andrzej Rudz
Camera Assistant: Yuya Morimoto
Gaffer: Tetsuya Kusu
Colorist: James Clayton Daniels
Sound Mixing: Kentaro Kimura

Film Stills:

In celebration of Japan’s top Major League Baseball players, twelve custom-designed manhole covers are cast in molten iron and installed in each athlete’s hometown — transforming everyday infrastructure into permanent public monuments.

This short documentary follows the creation of these covers at a factory in Hiroshima, offering a rare glimpse into the epic process behind one of Japan’s most overlooked crafts. While honoring baseball legends like Shohei Ohtani, the film also pays tribute to the unsung artisans — the metalworkers, designers, and factory crews — whose skill and dedication are quietly embedded in the streets beneath our feet.

舞台は広島県 。アメリカから遠く離れたこのマンホール工場で、日本人MLB選手達の唯一無二の物語を伝える唯一無二のマンホールが生まれた。情熱が込められた鉄の塊を見に行こう。

#ベースボールは唯一無二

Client: Major League Baseball | MLB
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy

Director+DoP: Sybilla Patrizia
AC: Sterling Vicenti
Gaffer: Shintaro Takazaki
Editors: Gabriela González, Sybilla Patrizia
Colorist: Mai Kawamura
Sound Design: Kentaro Kimura
Sound Recordist: Masatoshi Matsuura, Saki Funakoshi
Narration: Daisuke Asada

Manhole Production: TOMOTETSU KOGYO CO. , LTD.

Full Film:

Tedorigawa Sake
Brand photographs, 2025

Created as a photography collaboration between Erik Shirai and Sybilla Patrizia.

Crafted over centuries along the banks of the Tedorigawa River and beneath the shadow of Mount Hakusan, Tedorigawa Sake carries with it the quiet strength of nature and time. Captured on 35mm and medium format film, we set out to tell a story—one of people, nature, and time—revealing how Japan’s most celebrated beverage continues to take shape in the care of a new generation of artisans.

Shot for Tedorigawa Sake in Hakusan, Japan.

色をこえて青を見る　A color I named blue

Documentary Short
16min


Film Festivals:

Sheffield DocFest ‘25
Palm Springs ShortFest ‘25
DOC NYC ‘25 (Shorts Competition Special Mention)
SCAD Savannah Film Festival ‘25
Sapporo International Short Film Festival ‘25 (Best National Short Award)
Short Shorts Film Festival&Asia ‘25
DC/DOX ‘25
Tokyo Documentary Film Festival ‘25
Houston Cinema Arts Festival ‘25
Dialogues Documentary Film Festival, Milwaukee ‘25
Minikino Film Week Bali ‘25
Ridgeway Film Festival ‘25
India Doc Fest ‘25

Driven by the memory of a deep shade of blue he cannot forget, Watanabe dedicates his life to the pursuit of recreating Japan’s most perfect shade of indigo. For years he tries to understand the unique alchemy of factors that will bring forth his ideal hue until fate introduces him to Kato, a young artisan who is colorblind. Together, they uncover a new way to see blue beyond just color.

Featuring:
Kenta Watanabe
Shinya Kato

Director&Producer: Sybilla Patrizia
Producer: Mai Hosomura
Executive Producer: Mai Ushikubo, Reina Senga
Cinematography: Andrzej Rudz
Editor: Mariko Ide
Associate Producer: Hidekazu Tsutsui
Gaffer: Yosuke Shimada
Sound Mixing: Kentaro Kimura
Colorist: James Clayton Daniels
Poster Design: Jan Wojda

Film Stills:

OUR NEW WORLD 
Notre Nouveau Monde — Quand la Terre Nous Surprend
Feature-length documentary and series, 2025
Role: Japan Unit Director

90’+ 52’ (FRA) | 3 × 52’ (ENG, GER)

Boréales, Federation Studios, Lionfish Films, Terra Mater Studios, Servus TV, France Télévisions, USHUAIA TV, CNC, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse

Our planet is in a state of flux. Entire ecosystems are transforming under the pressure of a rapidly changing climate.

From mountain peaks to coral seas, habitats are shifting. Species – both animal and plant – must adapt or vanish. Human-made emissions have disrupted nature’s balance. However, there are people on the frontlines, doing what they can to face this transformation head-on. Climate change affects more than just wildlife. It alters the natural rhythms of Earth itself. Droughts and heatwaves are drying out once fertile land, while alpine regions are seeing the opposite: snow and ice retreat, and green takes over. In the oceans, temperate waters are becoming warm enough to host tropical life. The very identity of places is being rewritten.

Filmed in Kenya, Alaska, India, Australia, France and Japan.