Departures (Japan, 2008)
Running Time: 131 Minutes
Freshly unemployed, young cellist Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) has an epiphany in which he realizes he’s been heading down the wrong career path. Retreating to his hometown, he trains for a new professional role as a nakanshi, or one who prepares the dead for burial. Tsutomu Yamazaki provides comic relief as Daigo’s eccentric mentor in director Yojiro Takita’s Oscar-winning, richly detailed — if unlikely — drama about finding your bliss.
Workshop Instructor: Vinit Parmar
Workshop Coordinator: Antony Wong
Technical Assistance: William Tam, Zhu-Hui Wu
Author Bio
Vinit Parmar is fluent in English, Hindi, Gujarati, and French. Educated in medicine, law, film and theater, he began practicing law in New York City and has worked in the areas of corporate, banking, commercial real estate, insurance, landlord tenant, family, immigration, criminal, and entertainment, including copyright and contracts.
In film, he works as a sound mixer and editor for a variety of genres in both documentary and fiction films, many of which have received regional and national awards and accreditation, and other awards or nominations at festivals such as Sundance, Slamdance, United States Super8 Film + Digital Video Festival, and the Fringe Festival.
Vinit enjoys teaching full time as an Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College’s Film Department, and he writes, produces, directs, shoots, and edits short films and documentaries.
