Sunday Screening – The Invention of Dr Nakamats

Meet Dr. NakaMats, octogenarian, demi-god in his native Japan, and the world’s most prolific inventor, holding over 3300 patents. Edison by comparison had only 1,093. Some of his most famous include: the floppy disk, the CD, the DVD, the taxi cab meter, Cinemascope and even Karaoke. Here, in a vivid, often comic tour de force, Danish filmmaker Kaspar Asrtrup Schröeder takes us through the eccentric world of the great man.

NakaMats’ lifestyle is unorthodox. He believes that oxygen is bad for creativity so daily he holds himself underwater until half a second before death, this being the time when apparently his best ideas emerge. Although he is 82, he refers to himself as “middle aged” and swears he can make it to 144. In pursuit of this, he has photographed and tested the effects of every single meal he’s eaten over the last 34 years, a feat for which in 2005 he won the Ig Noble Prize for scientific achievements.

Yet the unstoppable Dr. NakaMats isn’t always easy to get along with having been known to forcefully cajole colleagues into singing songs in praise of his tenacity. And his inventions? Well, they’re not always that successful. The Love Jet, a powerful aphrodisiac and Dr. NakaMats’ Brain Drink are two of his more spectacular failures. But this is a man who doesn’t let small missteps allow him to falter – no, NakaMats’ is a unique pioneer and force of nature – a fact  Schröeder’s film captures with great joy.

Directed by Kaspar Astrup Schröder
57 minutes
2010

 

The Invention of Dr Nakamats will be screening at the Frontline Club in conjunction with the HotDocs Film Festival