Bath House of Whales

Mizuki Kiyama’s short animation utilizes a paint on glass technique to render a young girl’s visit to a neighborhood sento (bath house) with her mother with dazzling sensuous wonder. Evoking child-like fascination at daily rituals, this quotidian act amidst feminine intimacy becomes a space of otherworldly fantasy.Bath House of Whales won the Lotte Reiniger Promotion Award for Animated Film at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film in Germany.This film was made as a graduation project at the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts.