Award-winning artists, Yokko and César Dávila-Irizarry collaborate to bring Butoh to the cinema.

Award-winning artists, Yokko and César Dávila-Irizarry  collaborate to bring Butoh to the cinema.  “NO ONE” and “Oblivion” at FILM MAUDIT 2.0 at Highways, from January 12 – 24. Visit www.filmmaudit 

Japanese Artist, Yokko brings Butoh to the cinema with a deep parable of repressed emotion and feeling called No One. Presented with her short film, Oblivion, as part of Film Maudit 2.0 at the legendary Los Angeles performance art space, Highways, from January 12 – 24. Visit www.filmmaudit to learn how you can see these potential masterpieces online during this festival. She is joined by composers, César Dávila-Irizarry, an award-winning composer known for creating the haunting and claustrophobic theme/title music of American Horror Story and Paul Michael Henry, Butoh artist, music composer based in Glasgow, Scotland.

No One explores that our bodies are tamed in this society. We are forced to keep our spirits caged. When we unleash the deepest and most primal parts of our true selves, do we get lost in the destruction or do we find our way to breathe in this world we live in now as boundless no ones? 

No One will play with another film by Yokko: Oblivion. When life ends, where do its memories go? Must we look to History and Nature to find them? Or do they remain in our stead? 

Yokko is a multi-award winning artist from Japan. She has performed in, devised, and choreographed a variety of local and international shows, winning several awards including “Best One-Woman Show,” “Best Choreography,” “Best Physical Theatre,” and “Best Actress” for Butoh Medea (United Solo NYC 2014 & 2015 at Theatre Row, TVolution 2018 Hollywood Fringe Awards). Butoh Medea was selected to perform in Warsaw, Poland. (United Solo Europe 2015, Teatre Syrena) and Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015. It was also nominated  for The Asian Arts Award. It has been touring Europe and Universities in the USA since 2016. Other credits include: Lone Wolf Tribe’s Body Concert (Labapalooza! 2018 at St. Ann’s Warehouse), Hide Your Fires: Butoh Lady Macbeth (Pan Asian Rep’s NU Works, United Solo 2017: Theatre Row, Hollywood Fringe 2019: Winner of Best International Award), BALDY (CRS NYC, United Solo 2013, Hollywood Fringe 2013, Fringe NYC 2012). Her choreographed work, SHINKA, has received several awards such as “Outstanding Production, Choreography and Ensemble” (Planet Connections Theatre Festivity 2018), and also received “Outstanding Premier Production of a Play” and “Outstanding Choreography & Movement” from New York Innovative Theatre Foundation (NY IT Awards 2019). Yokko also acted in several local and international films, one of which is the 2016 Student Academy Winning film, Cloud-Kumo. Recently she has been appearing in several music videos as a Butoh dancer including I Don’t Know Where We Went Wrong – HOKO (2020), Ready To Let Go (2019)-Cage The Elephant, AUSENCIAS (2019)-NOIA.  She is the artistic director of the Butoh Theatre Group, Ren Gyo Soh. (www.rengyosoh.com) www.yokko-online.com 

César Dávila-Irizarry is an award-winning composer and sound designer from Puerto Rico. He is known for creating powerful sonic experiences that blur the line between music and sound design. César’s work lives in films, theater, and special projects like Arup’s Soundlab. He is most celebrated as the main composer of the theme song of the hit TV show American Horror Story. CesarMusicProjects.com

Paul Michael Henry is a Butoh Artist, Music Composer based in Glasgow, Scotland. “I make performances.  My starting points are dance, music, writing and ritual; my artistic approach grows out of punk rock and Butoh.” https://www.paulmichaelhenry.com/

Highways, the legendary L.A. Performance Space and Gallery, will present its Second Annual Film Maudit 2.0 festival to showcase and celebrate new outré, unusual, and startling films. The Film Maudit 2.0 festival features over 125 works of cinema from 25 countries including films rarely, if ever, seen in festivals: works addressing socio-political issues and taboo subject matter that challenges conventional artistic assumptions and sexual mores. Film Maudit 2.0 is inspired by French avant-garde filmmaker and writer Jean Cocteau who created the original Festival du Film Maudit (literally “cursed films”) in 1949 aiming to celebrate overlooked, shocking, and experimental films. 

Watch the Trailer for NO ONE
Watch the Trailer for OBLIVION