New Film: The Birth of Sake

I’ve visited many sake breweries over the years and always have my camera or video camera in tow. I am always sure I’ll capture the perfect video to help convey the magic of sake making on film. Well – it doesn’t quite work out that way. Reviewing my raw footage, I am usually foiled by the lighting, sound, steamed up lens, bad camera angle, low battery or some other glitch. You can’t imagine my thrill when I heard about a new film being made called The Birth of Sake, which endeavors to capture the art, complexity, humanity and beauty of sake making on film.

The Birth of Sake is a documentary film about the workers and production seasons at Tedorigawa, a fifth-generation, family-owned sake-brewery in Ishikawa, Japan. Tedorigawa has been producing some of the world’s top award winning sakes since 1870, and still relies on time-honored techniques to hand craft sake in a traditional way. We love Tedorigawa and it’s the perfect place to show some of the real beauty in sake making.

The filmmaker Erik Shirai was a cinematographer for The Travel Channel’s ‘No Reservations’ with Anthony Bourdain, and just started a Kickstarter campaign running through September 2, 2013 to raise money for finishing the film. I was lucky enough to attend a launch event for the kickstarter and got to see a short preview of the film and… it’s amazing. It really does sum up everything that is great about sake making in a visual way. Beautiful editing, cinematography, lighting and everything you would expect.

When completed, it will be an vital film to help champion the sake industry and well worth supporting! Can’t wait to get to see a full screening someday, but in the meantime, you can join me in lending your support over at Kickstarter:

you can watch a short preview clip here: