The Doc’s Kingdom seminar in Portugal aims at showing remarkable recent documentaries, and talking extensively about them. A festival is normally a good context to talk about film, but sometimes, and especially at the bigger festivals, discussions are often about practical problems (fundraising, production, programming, distribution). But what interested us more for our seminar was to talk about documentary itself: new tendencies in documentary, the use and influence of new technology, working methods, style, etc.

Since Doc’s Kingdom in Portugal is not held in the context of a festival, we have to make the program in advance. Here at the Yamagata Documentary Film Festival we wanted to profit from the opportunity that many people will see many films during these days, so we didn’t need to come with a pre-defined program. In the coming days the program will develop, based on the films we see here ourselves, and eventually also based on the dscussions that are already popping up (for example at the Komian).

Although the seminar bears the name of one of Robert Kramer’s films, (he made Doc’s Kingdom in 1987), and although there is a retrospective of his films here, the seminar is not a seminar about his work. This does not mean we won’t talk at all about Robert Kramer, but it is not our starting point. We especially want to focus on the films in the International Competition, and in the New Asian Current program, and to talk about those films that are challenging or provocative to discuss. During the coming days we will select films that we might show again during the seminar, or of which we want to show fragments to enhance the discussions. We might tap several filmmakers on their shoulder to ask them if they want to join us in a panel during the seminar and talk about their films. But since this festival shows about 170 films, we won’t have to limit ourselves to the films screened at the seminar. Many of you will have seen other films that mght be interesting to discuss in the light of the topics of Doc’s Kingdom.

The day will be divided in two or three sessions, each starting with the screening of a film, or fragments of several films. Each session will have a theme as its starting point, but we don’t want to be restrictive. So when the discussion develops organically into another direction, this might only lead to a more active and lively debate. We will try to set up a dialogue between the filmmakers in the panel, and hope for an active participation in the discussions of the audience. So, if you like thorough discussions, or if you are curious to hear what certain filmmakers have to say about documentary, you are very welcome to attend and participate in Yamagata’s Doc’s Kingdom, next Monday, October 8 at the Yamagata Citizen’s Hall Small Hall.

The program will be announced on Sunday. Look for more updates in Daily Bulletin #4 and #5.

Director Azza El-Hassan was to attend YIDFF with her film News Time, but had to cancel her trip due to the recent events around the world. The following message is from her e-mail to New Asian Currents coordinator Fujioka Asako.

Hello. Yesterday, I crossed from Ramallah to Jordan to start my journey to Yamagata. The way was terrible. And just as I arrived I learnt that the Israelis were going to close the bridge for few days as a collective punishment. I am very worried because it seems that the situation is worsening. I am afraid that if I stay out for a long time I might not be able to get back in for few months. This is why I do not feel safe traveling now. Please accept my extreme apology for this last minute cancellation but in the current situation it is very difficult to predict how the situation will change each day. I hope you understand and again my extreme apologies.

Yamagata is a festival that I enjoy sooo much: the people the films and of ourse the food. In fact, there is something that I was waiting to say to you when I meet you but since I am not coming now then I would like to tell you how much my previous experience at Yamagata changed a lot my feelings and my understanding of my work. It was the first time that I attended such a big festival that specialized in documentary. For two weeks I sat with other filmmakers and reflected and thought of filmmaking. I returned from there determined to work in a different way and hence, came News Time. Since then I have attended so many other festivals but Yamagata was the first to offer me a chance to see things differently. This is why I was eager to return this time.

I hope you have a lovely and successful festival and please forward me your catalogue.

PS: Please feel free to screen News Time in Sakata or in any other city which you feel the people would like to see what is happening here.

What the director realized after conquering her eating disorder...

DB: You met the cast of this film through a self-help therapy group for people with eating disorders. What kind of place was it?

NY: We had a rule: “Say as much as you want, but listen to the others”. There were about three or four meetings per week in which someone would speak freely and everyone else had to listen quietly. We voiced things that no one would listen to us talk about at school or at home. I started attending these meetings four years ago when I came across a book about eating disorders in a bookstore. I was so desperate that I would even clutch at straws.

DB: How long did the production take?

NY: It took me about three years in terms of building relationships. I was shooting the other women in the group a little, but it wasn’t going anywhere, so I even thought about getting started with a different theme. However, when one of my friends died in January , I wanted to make the others recognize what was going on, so I turned my footage into a film.

DB: Did you want to film everyone from the moment you met them?

NY: This has gotten fainter over time, but it’s strange, when I started going to the self-help group, I didn’t really feel like it was about me. Half of me wanted to record the group, and the other half of me felt like it could just be me that they were talking about. I had this strange kind of pride, this feeling that I wasn’t like them. It took about half a year for that to crumble, and after that, I understood that it was really me that was sick.
Also, in the beginning I was scared to point my camera at people, so I thought I’d start off by filming myself. I thought that if I filmed myself and then showed the video to someone and saw that they sympathized with me and agreed with me, I’d want to film that person. And so I made three shorts.

DB: The women all grew up in different environments, but it felt as if there was something so similar about their experiences, ways of thinking and ways of feeling.

NY: When I started going to the self-help group, I heard how each of the women had grown up and learned about their current states, and realized for the first time that there were people like me in the world. It was a huge shock. At first I mostly just thought that it was really strange, but there were too many similarities, and I realized that things I had thought were personal were all of the sudden public.

DB: As a woman of the same age, I felt a lot of sympathy towards the women.
NY: I think that the kinds of pressures they feel are things that every woman in this country experiences from the time she’s born. We all have the same influences, but sometimes it comes out in our bodies, and sometimes it doesn’t.
Currently, eating disorders are occuring at a very high rate. Eating disorders happen naturally within the individual, but I think that they’re also shaped by social problems or a product of the times. Looking from outside after all these years, I think that it’s a way of being on strike. I feel like so many of them are still on strike, and that it’s a way for them to express that message on the outside to appeal to people.

•Then, She Closes Another Eye will be shown at 21:00 on Saturday October 6 at Muse 1.

Committed relationships’ and ‘relationships without commitment’ by director and university student Tanaka Miwa

DB: In Tei-chan’s Roots, you mentioned that you could not ask your best friend, Tei-chan, anything about her Japanese-Korean heritage; but that you thought you could be bold and ask her about those things if the camera was there.

TM: When I heard that Tei-chan had decided to use the Korean pronunciation of her name instead of the Japanese one she had always used before, I decided to shoot my relationship with her objectively. I wondered why I had been afraid to ask so much when I had many questions about her Korean-Japanese heritage. Just like Popeye, who gets stronger by eating spinach, I can transform myself into a stronger person when I am with my camera. So, I used my camera as a means to question her life.

DB: Did your relationship with Tei-chan change after you taped her?

TM: We had never had a serious talk before the tapings; both of us felt somewhat embarassed during the shooting. But afterwards, she said, “I’m so glad that you asked,” and was very happy when she saw the finished work. I am ashamed of saying this, but I think we will stay best friends for the rest of our lives.

DB:In 35.4 °C, you depicted a relationship that avoided commitment.

TM: I have two kinds of relationships: relationships I want to establish by committing, and relationships I want to keep light without commitment. However, a part of me feels that it is not fair to avoid commitment, and that feeling drove me to make this video.

DB: Did you shoot 35.4 °C based on the script?

TM: Now that cameras are getting lighter, I take mine with me whenever I go out. I did not have a script; I made this work editing the footage I had beforehand. The title, 35.4 °C, stands for my normal temperature which is lower than average. To tell you the truth, my normal temperature is 35.6 °C, but I named this work 35.4 °C because that sounded better.

•Tei-chan’s Roots, 35.4 °C will be shown at 21:00 on Friday October 5 at Muse 1.