[2000]

Children in the Cosmos

(“Kodomo no sora”)
Director: KOBAYASHI Shigeru

2000 Japanese Subtitled in English Color 16mm 108 min

Production Company: Kodomono Sora Production Committee
Producer: KOBAYASHI Shigeru, and others
Photography: KOBAYASHI Shigeru
Editing: KOBAYASHI Shigeru
Music: KINA Shokichi, UI Hiroshi, ANDO Kyoko & others
Sound: KUBOTA Yukio, TANABE Nobumichi 		  International Sales: Kodomono Sora
c/o Tsubasa Club, 18-10-47, 4jo, Tsukisamu-higashi, Toyohira-ku, Sapporo 062-0054 JAPAN
Phone: 81-11-855-7388
Fax: 81-11-855-7388
E-mail: tsubame@kodomonosora.office.ne.jp
URL: www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~sb0845/kodomo/

English subtitled VHS available for sale (Iwanami Eizo, Fax: 81-3-5689-2685, E-mail: iwanami@iw-eizo.co.jp

[Festivals and prizes] Int’l Childrens’ Film Festival 2001 in Hyderabad, festival for the disabled in Berlin, Taiwan Int’l Documentary Film Festival 2000

[Synopsis] Trilogy featuring glowing faces of children at a special Sapporo daycare center.
Snowball Fight, a 58-minute film closes Kobayashi’s three-part film about Tsubasa Club, a small daycare center for elementary school children with and without disabilities. After School (’97, 20 min) presents the children’s brimming energy and glowing faces as they tumble about in play; Bicycles (’99, 30 min) follows them during their annual summer biking tour as they learn responsibility and decision-making skills. In Snowball Fight, more social background is presented—parents, schools, instructors, and the issue of daycare for children with disabilities. Throughout the film, the children themselves accept each other’s differences in a spontaneous manner and fight and play with each other without reserve.


KOBAYASHI Shigeru

Born in 1954 in Niigata Prefecture. After working as assistant director to documentary filmmaker Yanagisawa Hisao, he was cameraman for Living on the River Agano in 1992, for which he was awarded by the Japanese Society of Cinematographers. As cinematographer, he has worked with Tokieda Toshie on Nomin to Tomoni and Chiiki o Tsumugu. Publications include books of his still photography work. The first two parts of this film After School and Bicycles have been invited to various festivals in Asia including Yamagata IDFF New Asian Currents.

• KOBAYASHI Shigeru | After School | Bicycles | Children in the Cosmos | And Life Goes On