Matsutake Lead the Way

2025 |China, Japan |9:30

"Matsutake Lead the Way" is an experimental short film co-produced by anthropologist Shiho Satsuka and multimedia artist Liu Yi, commissioned by the Nieuwe Instituut. Blending Satsuka's fieldwork with frame-by-frame hand-drawing and digital geometry, Liu created an animation from tens of thousands of traditional Chinese brush paintings on rice paper.
The film traces landscape evolution from geological time to the present, focusing on the Japanese matsutake fungus. It illustrates how matsutake aids pine regeneration after natural and human disturbances. By weaving above-ground human activities with underground multispecies interactions, the film demonstrates how fungi lead toward multispecies cohabitation, making a significant contribution to environmental anthropology and more-than-human ethnography.

Director

Liu Yi Shiho Satsuka

Artist

Liu Yi

Anthropologist

Shiho Satsuka

MEET THE DIRECTOR

Liu Yi & Shiho Satsuka

A graduate of the China Academy of Art, Liu Yi is a Hangzhou-based multimedia artist and animation director whose works have been exhibited at prestigious global institutions such as the Tate Modern and honored at events like the Shanghai International Film Festival. Her practice focuses on non-human life and subterranean ecosystems, skillfully blending traditional ink wash with digital technology to explore contemporary ecology and perceptual spaces. In 2025, she co-created the experimental short film "Matsutake Lead the Way" with anthropologist Shiho Satsuka, commissioned by the Nieuwe Instituut in the Netherlands.

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Matsutake Lead the Way