Gender, Sexuality & Identity Research Group to Host Film Screening Event

On Monday, July 28th, 2025 15:00-16:30, Tokyo College’s “Gender, Sexuality & Identity” collaborative research group will host a double feature film screening and discussion with the project’s organizers.

“Dismantling Motherhood” (2024, 37 min 15 sec) and “Singing Together in a Museum” (2025, 12 min 48 sec) will be screened, followed by a discussion with the films’ director Natsumi Sakamoto (Artist) and one of the project’s organizers Ritsuko Saito (PhD Student, Research Associate, Waseda University). The entire event will be conducted in English.

You can register for the event here: Registration Form

 Attendance will be first come, first serve.

Date & Time : July 28th, 15:00-16:30

Venue: Location details will be shared after you register.

Title: "Dismantling Motherhood" (2024) & "Singing Together in a Museum" (2025) : A Double Feature Film Screening and Discussion with the Project Organizers

Language: English

Event Abstract:

The art project Dismantling Motherhood is an experimental initiative that aims to “dismantle” the concept of motherhood and “open up” its capacity to care for others.  In the past two years, we worked with six mothers, recruited from the public, on a number of creative practices.  Through this shared process of listening and expression, Natsumi created several artworks. Two of these are her films Dismantling Motherhood (2024) and Singing Together in a Museum (2025).

In the first year, our challenge was to create a small network where isolated mothers could listen to and express their own “voices,” which resulted in Dismantling Motherhood (2024). Alongside a series of workshops and online conversations, we researched the history of communal mothering in Japan—something difficult to imagine in today's society. 

In the second year, our focus was on the relationship between caring bodies and public space, resulting in Singing Together in a Museum (2025). Together with the same six mothers, we conducted creative workshops and research. This time, we explored the 1974 Mona Lisa spray-painting incident in Tokyo—a protest by Women’s Liberation Movement activist Tomoko Yonezu against the exclusion of people with care needs (e.g., people with disabilities and children).

Organizing Body: Gender, Sexuality & Identity Research Group, Tokyo College

Contact: shannon.welch@tc.u-tokyo.ac.jp