15/03/2026
Last winter invited me to help film and photograph, Masa: 居場所 (The Place Where I Am), which is now available to watch online (I’ve put the link in my bio). It’s a project that was a real pleasure to be involved in, working as part of a great team, led up by Rach - an immensely talented filmmaker who has taken to the unique challenges and hardships of shooting in the Scottish winter environment amazingly well.
The film follows climber Masa Sakano, originally from Japan but now based in the Scottish Highlands. It explores the concepts of home and belonging, themes that I can relate to myself, having grown up down south yet having found a strong feeling of belonging up in Scotland and now proudly calling it home. It moves between the icy winter cliffs of Scotland and Masa’s roots in rural Japan, weaving these two worlds together with some quite beautiful cinematography.
I had the honour of introducing the film on behalf of Rach at last year’s (as she’d just had a two week old newborn and I happened to be over at the festival anyway). Here’s some words she sent me at the time to introduce it:
“As somebody who was always seeking the feeling of home, and was also drawn to move to Scotland, I feel a real affinity with Masa and his story. Masa is known by so many in the Scottish community. He is a man with such a joy for climbing and the Scottish climbing community, with quite an esoteric approach to both life and his climbing.
When I first started winter climbing myself, I began hearing about him, and like others, I was intrigued to meet him. It took three years to find some funding to tell Masa’s story and, despite the tough winter conditions this past season, I’m proud of the film we’ve created, and am so incredibly grateful for the excellent team behind me, both in Scotland and Japan.
I hope you all enjoy the film and, whether you’ve been in the same place your whole life, or have moved across the world like Masa has, you feel similar joy about the place or places you call home.”
