Août sans lui

The film follows Hirata Yutaka, the first openly gay AIDS sufferer in Japan. Filmed over a series of months, it contrasts his public life as an outspoken figure on the lecture circuit with his personal descent into illness and death.
Koreeda’s film is designed as a lament for Yukata, who had a profound impact on the filmmaker. His dying years are not presented as a time of physical deterioration, but rather an evolution of a relationship between two men, one of whom emerged from the process with a markedly changed perspective on the goal of objectivity in nonfiction film.

"I made August Without Him after Hirata had passed away, so I made it while calling him to mind, exploring my own memory. Originally, he'd wanted me to keep filming him until he died, but it was emotionally draining to simply film the process of him getting weaker. Once we started shooting I realized that the relationship between Hirata and myself changed subtly and it would take one or two years to show that. So I wanted to show in the film something of the changing relationship caused by the long period of filmmaking."
(Kore-eda Hirokazu)