> Past Festivals

International Competition Jurors and Jurors’ Films

Here we introduce the five jurors who will decide the destination of awards including The Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize from the fifteen International Competition films for YIDFF 2005, and also take a look at their films that will be screened during the festival. See the YIDFF homepage for screening details.

Dominique Auvray (from France)

Dominique Auvray began her career after meeting Marguerite Duras and becoming the editor for Duras’ films Baxter, Vera Baxter (1976), The Truck (1977), etc. She has also edited the works of such filmmakers as Philippe Garrel, Wim Wenders, Claire Denis and Pedro Costa. In 2002, she directed a film portrait of Marguerite Duras.

Screening:
Marguerite As She Was

FRANCE / 2002 / French / Video / 61 min
This portrait is to come close to her, as she was: cheerful and serious, true and provocative, attentive and categorical, but above all young and free. (D. Auvray)

Su Friedrich (from the U.S.)

Su Friedrich began filmmaking in 1978 and has produced and directed thirteen 16mm films and videos, including Sink or Swim (1990), Rules of the Road (1993), Hide and Seek (1996), The Odds of Recovery (2002). Her films have won many awards, including the Grand Prix at the Melbourne Film Festival and OUTstanding Documentary feature at OUTFEST (The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival). Friedrich came to Japan in 1998 for the Tokyo Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in Tokyo. She currently teaches film & video production at Princeton University.

Screening:
Sink or Swim

USA / 1990 / English / 16mm / 48 min
A series of twenty-six short stories describes the childhood events that shaped a girl's ideas about fatherhood, family relations, work and play. Together these elements form a complex and emotionally intense film.

The Odds of Recovery

USA / 2002 / English / 16mm / 65 min
Faced with her sixth surgery and an ongoing hormone imbalance, the filmmaker turns the camera on a difficult patient—herself—and analyzes her chances for a happier, healthier life.

Jia Zhangke (from China)

Jia Zhangke was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy in 1993 and directed Xiao Shan Going Home and Xiao Wu (Pickpocket). The latter and the following Platform (2000) were screened and won numerous awards at many international film festivals. He filmed In Public (2001) for the Jeonju International Film Festival production Digital Short Films by Three Filmmakers, which screened at YIDFF 2001. His latest film, The World has also won much attention.

Screening:
The World

JAPAN, FRANCE, CHINA / 2004 / Color / 35mm / 133 min
Tao is living out her dreams as a dancer at World Park, a theme park where visitors can see replicas of famous world monuments such as the Eiffel Tower and the Pyramids without ever leaving Beijing’s suburbs. Tao and her boyfriend, Taisheng, moved to the big city from the countryside a few years ago. Unfortunately, not everyone who comes to Beijing with high hopes can land a well-paying job. Yet, even theme park microcosms are vulnerable to change. For Tao and her friends, there will be marriage and break-up, loyalty and infidelity, joy and tragedy.

Sai Yoichi (from Japan)

Sai Yoichi was an assistant director to directors Oshima Nagisa and Murakawa Toru before making his directorial debut with A Mosquito on the Tenth Floor (1983). He has since made films including Someone’s Gonna Get Killed Someday (1984), Close Your Eyes Quietly, My Friend (1985), Via Okinawa (1989), All Under the Moon (1993), Irresponsible Heisei Family: Tokyo Deluxe (1995), and Dog Race (1999). In 1996 he studied at The Korean Language Institute at Yonsei University, and while researching modern Korean film history, he had the opportunity to meet many people in the Korean film industry. Recent works such as Doing Time (2002), Quill (2004) and Blood and Bones (2005) have also garnered much attention.

Screening:
All Under The Moon

JAPAN / 1993 / Japanese / 35mm / 109 min
Chang-nam, a zainichi Korean taxi driver, is constantly surrounded by episodes of tragicomedy in his daily life. Although he wins over a stuck-up Filipina that he met by chance, the romance is not as straightforward as expected. This masterpiece that took the Japanese film industry by storm in 1993 is directed by Sai Yoichi, himself a second generation Japan-born Korean who continually stirs the industry with his evocative and spectacular visual offerings. Here, Sai manages to subvert the conventional image of zainichi, a theme that he explored for the first time in his career with this film.

Wu Yii-feng (from Taiwan)

Wu Yii-feng is a Taiwanese documentary filmmaker, social activist and leading pioneer of Taiwan’s current communal media movement, he founded the FullShot Film Workshop in 1988. Major works include Moon Children (1990), screened at YIDFF ’91, and Chen Tsai-Gen and His Neighbors (1997), shown at YIDFF ’97. He participated at YIDFF ’99 program, “Case Study: FullShot (Taiwan) and Cinema Juku (Japan) / Spreading the Filmmaking Movement.” Gift of Life was screened in the International Competition at YIDFF 2003 and won the Runner-up Prize.

Screening:
Gift of Life

TAIWAN / 2003 / Mandarin, Taiwanese / Video / 148 min
A major earthquake hit Taiwan on September 21, 1999, completely burying in landslides the village near the epicenter. Seven people from four different families randomly look for the remains of their relatives in the aftermath of the quake. If anything, the days after the disaster weigh even more heavily on the stricken families. While carefully building trust, the director warmly observes how these families, through in the grip of loss, struggle toward recovery. This film is the first in the FullShot series “Facing the Future and Walking Tall” which will be screened as a special program at this year’s festival.