Biography
Arata Mori was born in 1983 in Akita, Japan. He studied Fine Arts at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, where he completed his Bachelor's degree in 2012. Since then, he has lived and worked in Tokyo and Berlin. Mori has directed several short experimental and narrative films, as well as dance performance videos and video installations. His first feature-length film was the experimental documentary "A Million" (JP/DE 2021), a "fake" travelogue about an imaginary city, filmed in real locations along China's New Silk Road. The film premiered at the DOK Leipzig Festival in 2021. In 2022, Mori received an Individual Fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council.
His 45-minute documentary "Veins" (2023, co-directed with Laurian Ghinitoiu) follows the journey of 30,000 tons of marble from Portugal to New York City, where it is processed to become the facade of an arts center. The film was screened in the competition at the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) in Chicago in 2023. In addition to his artistic projects, Arata Mori works as a freelance director and editor for Japanese TV networks such as NHK and WOWOW, often covering crisis regions like the Ukrainian border area and Iran.
Together with Andreas Hartmann, Mori directed the feature-length documentary "Johatsu - Die sich in Luft auflösen" ("Johatsu - Into Thin Air"), about people in Japan who use professional agencies, known as "Night Moving Companies," to disappear from their former lives. In 2024, "Johatsu - Die sich in Luft auflösen" won the top prize for Best Documentary at the DOK.fest Munich. The film's German theatrical release was in November 2024.