Tampopo Head and the name of the dogs is a short fictional film based on a personal experience I had with my former neighbors.

The starting point of the story was an event that left me with a strange feeling: one of the neighbor's named his puppy 'Toshie', after me. And another dog was named Janneke, after a girl who also lived in that neighborhood. Her father named the dog after her. 

Later on, this event made me research about the relationship between humans and dogs. I was inspired by Alice A. Kuzniar‘s book Melancholia’s Dog: Reflections on our animal kinship. She investigates the relationship in four categories: Muteness, Shame, Intimacy and Mourning.

In this film, I interpret the act of reflecting our melancholic feelings onto dogs. And I try to explore the perception of “love” in the relationship between men and women through their relationships with dogs.


Toshie's film is van 6 tot en met 14 juli te zien in de Gerrit Rietveldacademie, Fred. Roeskestraat 96, Amsterdam.