Yximallo, an award-winning documentary on the eponymous cult Japanese outsider musician, will receive its Irish premiere this Saturday, 28th March
In a quiet Dublin suburb, in a strange and cluttered house, silence and uncertainty reign. Amongst the countless cassettes, records, posters and mementoes of a life on the margins of marginal music, Yximalloo considers his future. Across the smoke-filled room, his partner of ten years passes another day at his ancient computer, glancing habitually at the CCTV monitors, pausing to talk to the cat. Yximalloo is uncertain. He cannot sleep. He misses Japan. He has nothing to do. Dressed in green lycra leggings, glove puppets on his hands, he sets out once more to win a tiny Dublin audience over to his strange brand of music… Moving between Ireland, Japan and the U.S., ‘Yximalloo’ is a unique portrait of a unique and difficult man, his inability and unwillingness to fit in and the countless conflicts that threaten to tear him apart.
Yximalloo premiered at the FID Marseille film festival in 2014, where it won the Prix Premier. It has since been selected for screening at a variety of international film festivals and, as part of JDIFF 2015, it will have its Dublin premier at the Lighthouse cinema on Saturday 28th of March at 2pm.
The film’s co-director (and formerly one of the main dudes at The Joinery) Feargal Ward says:
Yximalloo is a cult Japanese outsider musician who came to our attention when he was programmed by Darren McCreesh in the Joinery in 2011. He has maintained obscurity, even though he has been making and recording music since the 1970’s, and his champions include artists as diverse as Jad Fair (Half Japanese), Momus, and members of Animal Collective. Shot over a year in Ireland, Japan and the U.S., the film is a unique portrait of one man’s inability and unwillingness to fit in. All the music used in the film is from his extensive back catalogue. He operates quite outside the mainstream way of things; last year Kompakt records released a record looking for him.
Yximalloo – Irish Premiere
The Lighthouse Cinema
2pm, Saturday 28th March
