NEW YORK, NY.- Film Forum presents the U.S. theatrical premiere of ASCENT, beginning Wednesday, June 7. Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest peak and still an active volcano, has long inspired artists with its dramatically symmetrical snow-capped cone, its intimations of danger, and its historical/political role in Japanese consciousness. Dutch artist Fiona Tan, clearly under the influence of Chris Marker and Agnès Varda, draws upon more than 4000 images of the iconic mountain. In a fictional narrative voiceover, in both English and Japanese (she speaks English, actor Hiroki Hasegawa speaks Japanese), the film muses upon history, mythology, aesthetics, and geology – plus love and grief, Godzilla and Van Gogh, the role of the cherry blossom, and much else. This is an experimental movie in the best sense – a creative fusion of words and images, historical and contemporary thought, and Eastern and Western philosophy.

ASCENT continues Tan’s exploration into the intersection of documentary and fiction, which was also central to her previous film, HISTORY’S FUTURE (2015). A visual artist working in photography and film, her work was featured at the 2009 Venice Biennale and is in the collections of the The New Museum, the Guggenheim, the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), the Tate Modern (London), and the Centre Pompidou (Paris).

ASCENT will be presented to the public free of charge, thanks to the generosity of the Ostrovsky Family Fund.

ASCENT will have a one-week engagement, Wednesday, June 7 – 13, at Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street (West of 6th Avenue), with screenings daily at 12:30, 2:20, 4:15, 6:10, 8:00 & 9:50. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis, day of show only.

“An ambitious affair, which works as a love story, a philosophical meditation on the nature of photography, a film about bereavement and even as a social history of Japan in the 20th century…” – Geoffrey Macnab, Sight & Sound

ASCENT (2016, 80 minutes) Written, produced, photographed & directed by Fiona Tan. Edited by Nathalie Alonso Casale. Sound Design by Hugo Dijkstal. Composer: Leon Anemaet. Voiceover spoken by Hiroki Hasegawa and Fiona Tan. In English and Japanese with English subtitles. The Netherlands.