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Oct.8 no.6


 
What can we do, here and now?
ONE CUT
Juror Hartmut Bitomsky on Documentary Film
DIRECT EXPERIENCE
The Disabled’s Problems Are Everyone’s Problems
Confirming Yourself through Film
“When The Audience Cries, I Cry Too”
Homage to Kamei Fumio
In Vanda’s Room(International Competition)
An Interview with Pedro Costa
Sowing Seeds (New Asian Currents)
An Interview with Avic Ilagan
Potent Insight into Male Sexuality
in This Year’s Indian Films
Editer’s Notes








What can we do, here and now?


US and British military strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan began early this morning. We had prayed that the “dispute” would not intensify, so we can only see this development as deeply unfortunate. This year’s YIDFF saw a variety of peace advocacy actions, including CHANCE! (responsible for the yellow ribbons found at each venue). The morning’s events may mean a shift from “ordinary everyday life” to “tragic daily life,” not only for the people of Afghanistan but for all of us in this world. It is imperative that we ask ourselves what we can do, here and now.

(The Editors)



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ONE CUT

Juror Hartmut Bitomsky on Documentary Film
One constant dilemma of documentary is the fact that you have to film things the way they appear regardless of whether they’re funny or sad. You choose a subject that interests you deeply and, bewitched by it, make your materials come alive. On the contrary, as a documentary filmmaker, you can also say “No” clearly to the world from different angles. So I would appreciate if you could watch this movie with an awareness of those two contradictory aspects (of documentary).
(Hartmut Bitomsky, director, B-52, International Competition juror)



DIRECT EXPERIENCE
After the screening of Route One/USA, a spotlight appeared to reveal Barre Phillips on stage with his double bass amidst the darkness, and tension filled the air as the audience held their collective breath. Phillips doesn’t as much play his instrument as struggle with it. Listening to him improvise was like witnessing the birth of music on the earth. Phillips said, “We depend too much on intellect. What’s really important is the direct experience of what takes place in front of you, and not making any definitions in your mind.”
(After Route One/USA at the Yugakukan)



The Disabled’s Problems Are Everyone’s Problems
“It’s wonderful that part of my life could be turned into a film by a professional, and I am very thankful. In Japanese society today, most people have no idea how people with disabilities live. I think that letting people around us know how we live is the surest way to bring disabled people and people without disabilities closer together.”
(Sato Masahiro from A Patch of Blue Sky)



Confirming Yourself through Film
I made this film by talking to people close to me. I’m not good at talking to people, but it was a meaningful experience for me. 1999 was an empty time for me, but by filming through the emptiness, I was able to confirm that I am overly conscious of myself.
(Inoue Akiko, director, Dialogue 1999)



“When The Audience Cries, I Cry Too”
“I always cry whenever I watch this film, even though I’m the one who made it,” said Kim So-young of her film Sky-blue Hometown. Questions poured out from the audience, and the excitement reached its height with a photo session outside the theater. A Korean student from Osaka University of Arts commented, “I’m really happy that I got a chance to watch this film. I hope that more people can have the opportunity to watch it so that we can share the tragedy, and that further research is done on Stalin’s policy of forced migration.”



Homage to Kamei Fumio
“The best filmmakers have no money sense. It’s exactly because they think of nothing but editing their footage that they can produce such artistic films. I got to see this side of Kamei Fumio.”
(Shiraishi Yoko)

“Kamei might have advised and inspired me. But I had to approach ecological issues subjectively. I think I was able to make a tribute to Kamei. When you get down to it, ‘All Living Things Are Friends.’”
(Kikuchi Shu, speaker, Kamei Fumio Retrospective)



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A Film Isn’t a Court of Law
In Vanda’s Room(International Competition)
An Interview with Pedro Costa

 


Dwellers of the slums

There’s no doubt that Vanda and her family are in a cruel and negative situation. Because of this, I could have filmed them as the dregs of society, and if I stuck the right kind of music onto it, I’m sure I could have made the kind of negative film people were expecting. But life is more complicated than that, and you can’t just judge things as positive or negative, or as good or bad—it’s not that easy. A film isn’t a police station or a courtroom, so I wanted to convey that complexity exactly as it was. Vanda and her family live according to the very basic, pure notion of “wanting to improve our lives, and not live like dogs.” I just didn’t want to make the kind of film that would betray them.

Speaking about the film

You liked the film, so I don’t mind saying something about it, but I don’t want to talk about it the same way as I’d talk about an ordinary movie, because this kind of film is dying out, but at the same time, it’s also the story of the death of Vanda’s neighborhood. Capitalism is killing them both.... Right now the whole world’s going on about terrorism, but when you even try to talk about my film like an ordinary movie that’s a terrorist act that’s going to kill my film.

Vanda and I

I used to shoot huge productions on 35 mm. That involved production methods, hierarchies and a schedule down to the minute like you’d find in the army. But I don’t like any of that, so I wanted to find a different method of making films, a way that was more gradual and patient. I don’t like leaders with power, so I can’t do that. And then Vanda and her family really do live in a slum, so they’d help me when I needed something, and if I needed money they’d lend it to me. For that reason, I think you could say that they weren’t just actors, they were also part of the crew. The kind of fundamental mutual trust you find in my film between me and the object of the film is dying out in movies today.

We can’t forget about Ozu

Going back to my point about leaving complexities as they are, this film owes a large debt to Ozu. Ozu’s films start from stereotypes, then gradually paint a complex and complicated world. I digested this from watching his films when I was younger, and it’s stayed with me. I think it’s important to stay on this path that continues to lead out from Ozu, and to make films that can be useful to people.

In Vanda’s Room screens again on Monday, October 8 at 19:20 at Solaris 2.

(Kotegawa Daisuke)


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My Own Discoveries Are Precious
Sowing Seeds (New Asian Currents)
An Interview with Avic Ilagan


Director Avic Ilagan, sound director Ellen Ramos and photographer Eric Daza came to Yamagata to film last May. I accompanied them during the filming. I was a witness to the actual shooting, so was surprised to see the composition of the finished piece. What kind of conflicts had to be overcome to create this movie? I talked with director Avic Ilagan.


DB: You chose a social theme, that of “Filipina brides,” so I was surprised to see that you were actually focusing primarily on your own interest in the theme.

AI: If anything, I was trying to make an experimental piece like this. I originally belonged to a theater group, and I was trained to produce conventional documentaries that used narration. However, I’m actually more interested in leaving that all behind and experimenting with new, creative methods that will let me express more personal emotion. So I’m careful not to be restricted by traditional methods. I want to make films in which it’s impossible to say where the beginning and the end are, films that are a kind of mixture, unlike a linear piece that proceeds in order with a beginning, a middle and an end.

DB: I sensed the pain you felt in those women.

AI: I was taught to be politically outspoken at a progressive university, so I was critical of the “Asian Brides.” I have always seen them negatively. For example, I saw them as victims who came to Yamagata believing that they’d found a way to ameliorate their lives, and I saw the phenomenon itself as a form of slave trade. I thought that they were brought to Yamagata without knowing anything. However, as I got to know the women, I began to realize that they made the decision to come to Yamagata on their own, fully aware of the conditions. We cannot judge the women one-sidedly as being the victims, nor can we criticize the men who brought the brides to Yamagata.

DB: Why do you think the brides are so happy and cheerful in the movie, despite being married to an unknown man in a foreign country?

AI: People leave the Philipines because living conditions in their country are not good. So I imagine that the women feel like they want to prove that they are happy in Japan. In reality, they might only be a bit happy. They must have sacrificed a lot to come to Japan. To be brought into an entirely different culture is already a sacrifice. So when you interview these women without making them aware of these things, they all answer, “I am happy to have come here. I have money, a house, kids, and I’m able to wire money back home. I’m happy to be able to do these things.” However, I don’t think they would have said yes had I asked them “Are you REALLY happy?”

 

Avic Ilagan’s next film will revolve around Matilde, who appears in Sowing Seeds. I am looking forward to seeing her again in Yamagata.

(Ogawa Tomohiro)



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Potent Insight into Male Sexuality
in This Year’s Indian Films

 


“My friend who used to be so aloof unexpectedly came to me one day and asked me how I was doing with my girlfriend,” said Neeraj Bhasin, director of My Friend Su. “I was shocked, but also felt very happy. A few years later, I heard some not-so-generous rumors about him, so I decided to go see him. In the course of repeated meetings during the six months, he gradually started talking about himself.”

“I am a woman trapped in a man’s body,” says Su in the film. I wondered how the director took his friend’s words. The answer came not from his own mouth, but in the film itself, in the gaze of the camera, apparently bewitched by the charm of its protagonist.

Three of this year’s films from India give insight into male sexuality. A man who sells home-made potency enhancers at a men-only bazaar; half-naked men arduously engaged in drills at a wrestling club.... In Performance, Rahul Roy documents male eroticism and desire, but suspends it just before it is consummated, and shows it as an internal energy. Roy’s ambivalent stance towards the topic is amazingly revolutionary.

Sexual fantasies swirl like smoke in Amar Kanwar’s King of Dreams. Although I translated the subtitles for it, I confess I still can’t bring it into focus in my mind. As I write this article, I am thinking of questions to ask the director at the screening Sunday night.

In the space of one year, these three directors from India, where social and religious control over sex is not weak, have attemped to give insights into sexual desire and male sexuality that are directed to one’s inner self. What changes is Indian society undergoing? Their questions are extremely stimulating to us all, aren’t they?

(Kawaguchi Takao, Q&A session moderator, New Asian Currents)


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Ogawa Shinsuke and Robert Kramer
Editer’s Notes



Ogawa Shinsuke and Robert Kramer must have passed each other somewhere on the sidewalk or in the theater in 1989. I remember the passion with which Ogawa spoke of Kramer and Newsreel, so Ogawa clearly thought highly of Kramer. That said, no one remembers seeing the two talk, nor are there records of any conversation. Whether by people continuing their work or by retrospective screenings, Ogawa and Kramer were brought together again this year. Seeing this, I couldn’t help but imagine the two stopping to talk this time as they passed each other in the aisle. Films and film festivals continue. Let us meet again.

(Masuya Shuichi)


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