>> Catalog 2023

Bring Min’yo Back!

JAPAN / 2022 / Japanese / Color / DCP / 83 min

Director, Editing, Producer: Moriwaki Yuji
Photography: Moriwaki Yuji, Yagi Motohiro
Appearances: Minyo Crusaders, Frente Cumbiero, Peter Barakan, Kubota Makoto, Kishino Yuichi, Oishi Hajime, Hajime Chitose, RIYO Mountains, Tokyo Cuban Boys, Coderanni
Distribution: ALFAZBET

Minyo Crusaders is a band that attempts to revive the lost music of minyo as “songs of the people” by mixing it with various kinds of dance music such as cumbia, other Latin genres, Afrobeat, and reggae. This documentary follows a band based in Fussa, Tokyo as they get ready to perform live overseas.

Moriwaki Yuji

Born in 1982. After graduating from Waseda University, he started his career in advertising photography, worked in editing production, and became freelance in 2011. Currently based in Tokyo, working as director and editor of commercials, music videos, and video packages. He has directed numerous short documentaries of artists for Lute Media and Hankyu Culture Hunter.

Talk Session 1: Weaving Tohoku

Speakers who have been involved in community building activities through film and other art forms, mainly in the Tohoku region, will be on stage to discuss how to build networks as well as challenges they faced after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Date:

Oct 7 (Sat) 17:00

 

Panelists:

Kushigeta Kazunori (Managing Director of Miyako Eiga Seikatsu Kyodo Kumiai, Board Member of Japan Community Cinema Center)
Kumiai, Board Member of Japan Community Cinema Center) Born in Kuji City, Iwate Prefecture. After working for an architectural design office, his role was as manager of Miyako Cinemarine in Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture from 2006 to September 2016. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, he has been actively involved in screening activities throughout the coastal areas of Iwate Prefecture, as well as training and supporting people screening films in the area.

Tachiki Shoichiro (Director of teco LLC.)
After working as a curator in the fields of moving image, architecture, and contemporary art, he organized Nara Yoshitomo exhibitions three times in Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture and established teco LLC.. He has been involved in the Cultural Job Creation Project (Reconstruction Agency) in the disaster area, and the documentary ASAHIZA about the movie theater built 100 years ago in Minamisoma City. He is currently working on an AIR Project (METI) in the coastal areas of Fukushima Prefecture.

Aizawa Kumi (Managing Director and Secretary General of Michinoku Trail Club [NPO])
Architect and producer. In addition to running an architectural design office, she edits magazines, produces films, and is involved in art projects. She has been active along the Tohoku coast since 2011, including producing the Tohoku Trilogy of documentaries directed by Sakai Ko and Hamaguchi Ryusuke. Since 2015, she has been managing the Michinoku Shiokaze Trail.

Moderator:

Ogawa Naoto (Curator of Sendai Mediatheque)
Born in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, he is the program coordinator for Cinema with Us at YIDFF 2023. As a curator of Sendai Mediatheque since 2000 and a specially-appointed associate professor at Miyagi University since 2016, he is involved in film culture, film archives, education, and publishing.

Talk Guests:

Komori Haruka
Filmmaker. Since 2011, she has been creating works from people’s narratives and recordings of landscapes in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture, and other locations in Tohoku region, such as Trace of Breath (2015, YIDFF 2015), Listening to the Air (2018, YIDF 2019), and Double Layered Town / Making a Song to Replace our Positions (2019, YIDFF 2019. co-directed with Seo Natsumi).

Asada Wataru
Artist, writer, and teacher at the Faculty of Literature, Arts and Cultural Studies at Kindai University. Aiming to work in “a mysterious way of connecting with others that has never before existed,” he travels to various sites of people’s daily lives to plan and direct art projects, compose and perform music, and write. He creates sound works and is the author of numerous books including Soki no Ongaku, Sumibiraki, and Fukushima Songscape.

Radio Shimo-Kajiro: The Songs that Led Us Here Today

JAPAN / 2023 / Japanese / Color / Blu-ray / 70 min

Director: Komori Haruka

Cinema with Us 2023 selection