Weston James Palmer
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Karōshi, 2017

Karōshi takes its title from the Japanese term for death from overwork. The film considers the pressures of becoming a young artist, questioning the belief that constant labor inevitably produces success. Moving between ambition, exhaustion, and self-determination, it examines the inherited rules that shape how we work and how we imagine a life.

Karōshi was conceived as a larger film project. The photographs and teaser were created as part of a Kickstarter campaign intended to fund its production. The campaign did not reach its funding goal, and the film remained unrealized. These materials document the project’s development and the effort to bring it into existence.