> Past Festivals

all about me?

They say anyone can write one autobiography in a lifetime.

Coming from the flesh and sweat of the narrator’s life, our personal stories are, with no exception, all persuasive and intriguing.

What then, makes first-person narratives stories work? Advanced in technology and audiovisual culture, with a tradition of “I-literature,” what kind of new personal films are coming out from Japan? Raising voice against the claim that documentary should be “impartial, neutral and objective,” what kind of Swiss films present a new style of subjectivity?

In collaboration with the Swiss film festival Visions du Reel, we are pleased to present a three-day program of exciting new Japanese and Swiss films from the so-called “self-documentary” field. Daily discussions with filmmakers from both countries will delve deeply into the form and style of personal documentaries today and what they project of our Eastern and Western cultures.

Each evening, bilingual discussions will take place at Sakura, a traditional Japanese warehouse converted into a cafe gallery. Six Swiss guests and the Japanese filmmakers will be joined by filmmakers from New Asian Currents and other programs to exchange ideas.

After Yamagata, this program will travel to Kyoto University of Art and Design (Oct. 15–17) and onwards to Visions du Reel in Switzerland, April 2006.

—Coordinator, Fujioka Asako & Asano Fujiko