The Walker Cinema will host a film screening with a live performance by composer Eiko Ishibashi. Her score accompanies GIFT, a dialogue-free film created in collaboration with director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi.
The film is shown with its live soundtrack
This screening is designed as a shared film-and-music performance. GIFT is only screened when Eiko Ishibashi performs its soundtrack live, so the music is part of the event as it unfolds, not a separate recording added to an ordinary film showing. The Walker lists the performance for Saturday, November 7, 2026, at 7 p.m. in the Walker Cinema. The film runs 74 minutes. That format gives the evening a clear focus: audiences watch Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s images while hearing Ishibashi perform the score in the room. It is a one-night event on the Walker’s calendar, offering a different way to experience the relationship between a film and its music.
Composer Eiko Ishibashi performs the score in person
The music has a visible performer: Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist Eiko Ishibashi will play the score live during the screening. Ishibashi has composed for film, television, theater, and other settings, and her work includes the music for Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car and Evil Does Not Exist. For GIFT, the live score accompanies the film as it appears on screen. The Walker describes the performance as Ishibashi’s live musical accompaniment, making her part of the event rather than an unseen contributor behind a soundtrack. The listing does not specify which instruments she will use or how the music will unfold moment by moment, so those details are best left to the performance itself.
GIFT tells its story without spoken dialogue
Instead of dialogue, GIFT uses English intertitles and Ishibashi’s live music to guide the audience through its 74-minute running time. Intertitles are written text shown on screen, a storytelling device associated with silent cinema. Here they work alongside the live score, while the film’s images carry the rest of the experience. The Walker describes the film as an inquiry into the relationship between sound and film. That makes the performance especially suited to a cinema setting: the audience can follow the visuals and on-screen text while listening to music played in real time. The film was made in Japan in 2023, and the Walker lists its format as DCP with live performance.
The screening brings together Ishibashi and filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi
GIFT grew from a collaboration between Ishibashi and filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi. After working together on Drive My Car, Ishibashi invited Hamaguchi to film material for her live concerts in and around her mountain home in Japan. The invitation, along with the rural landscape, developed into two films: GIFT and Evil Does Not Exist. For this Walker event, Hamaguchi’s film is paired with Ishibashi performing live, bringing the two collaborators’ work together in one cinema experience. Hamaguchi directs the film; Ishibashi provides its live score. The event is co-presented by the University of Minnesota’s Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies and the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment in Asian Studies.
