ICYMI: Production Updates!

Hi, everyone! It has been a whirlwind couple of months and I have to say it has flown by! Posting updates to the website unfortunately got lost in the shuffle, but I'm back!

TL;DR - Principal photography was completed in June; pickup sessions were conducted in July; Translation of interview materials is ongoing; Northwest Film Forum has joined us as a fiscal sponsor; trailer coming soon!

Principal Photography in Japan

We traveled to Japan for filming for two and a half weeks in May and June. With support from our wonderful crew in Japan, we collected almost 40 hours of footage, including 10 hours of interviews. We truly cannot thank our crew enough for their incredible work on this project—we captured so many great visuals and hours of excellent sound work and made meaningful connections with our interview subjects thanks to the work of our crew. We traveled across Hokkaido, with filming locations in Sapporo, Eniwa, Shiraoi, Biratori, Yakumo, Daisetsuzan National Park, and Hamatonbetsu. We met lots of incredible people and incredible dogs! Here are some of my favorite candids from the trip.

Pickups in the US and UK

After wrapping in Japan, I had the chance to travel to the UK to interview some of our Hokkaido Ken counterparts in BAHK, the British Association of Hokkaido Ken. We also got some interviews with HANA members and footage from the Nihon Ken Heritage Specialty show in Washington in July.

Fiscal Sponsorship

Northwest Film Forum, a nonprofit organization in Seattle, has graciously agreed to act as a fiscal sponsor for our film. This means two exciting things have changed about our funding model: First, any donation you make to us via NWFF is now tax deductible, and donations can be made in a variety of ways including employer matching programs. Second, it allows us to apply for nonprofit grants, which hugely expands the range of funding opportunities as we enter post-production and the festival circuit. We are busily cutting trailers and writing grant applications so we can make our film the best it can be! Please see the "Support" tab for a link to NWFF's donation page.

What We're Up To Now

Right now, our translator (me) is busy translating those many hours of interview footage! Meanwhile, our editor is working on trailer cuts, and we hope to have something to show you very soon. We are also planning a second, shorter trip to Japan in the winter so we can capture some final footage of the Hokkaido in their favorite environment. Please follow along on Facebook for the most frequent drops of behind-the-scenes content!