japanese

Yamagata Film Criticism Workshop

Seeking participants for Yamagata Film Criticism Workshop

A “Yamagata Film Criticism Workshop” will be held for the first time ever at YIDFF 2011. This project aims to encourage thinking, writing, and reading on film using documentaries as an entry point, while offering immersion in the live atmosphere of the film festival. Participants will receive guidance from professional film critics and write their own articles, which will be presented publicly. If you have a desire to write reviews of documentary films, we’re looking forward to receiving your application!

Yamagata Film Criticism Workshop application outline

Duration: October 6th (Thu)–11th (Tue)

Venue: Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival screening venue (Yamagata City)

Entry Conditions:
  1. Must be able to attend YIDFF 2011 from October 6th–11th
  2. Must be able to write and engage in discussions in English or Japanese
  3. Must be able to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses

Entry method:
Send an email including the details requested below to Usui at the YIDFF’s Tokyo Office <usui@tokyo.yidff.jp>.
  1. Name
  2. Age
  3. Address
  4. Phone number
  5. Email address
  6. Profile (education & employment history)
  7. Short Essay on the theme “Why I Want to Write about Documentaries.” (reasons for applying, approximately 400–500 words.)

Entry Deadline: September 5, 2011

Entry Result Notification:
After the applications are reviewed, two or three participants will be selected from among the English-language applicants, and two or three from among the Japanese-language applicants. Those chosen to participate will be notified individually in early September.

Workshop Content:
After watching screenings at YIDFF 2011, participants will write their own critiques. Lecturers will provide personal supervision.

Lecturers:
film critics Chris Fujiwara (USA) and Kitakoji Takashi (Japan)

Chris Fujiwara (film critic, USA)
Chris Fujiwara is a film critic whose books include Jerry Lewis; The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger; and Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall. He writes for a range of publications from daily newspapers to specialized film journals such as Film Comment and Sight and Sound. He was invited to the Ozu centenary symposium in Tokyo in 2003. He has taught at Tokyo University, Yale University, and elsewhere. He has mentored young film critics at the Berlin International Film Festival’s Talent Campus since 2003.

Kitakoji Takashi (film critic, Japan)
Associate professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design’s Department of Film Production, part-time lecturer at Seikei University, and visiting researcher at National Film Center (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). Author of “Wong Kar-Wai-teki Renai,” and co-author of “Eiga no Seijigaku,” “Pedro Costa: Toi Heya kara no Koe,” and “Zero Nendai + no Eiga.” His film criticism appears in publications including the Asahi Shimbun, Soen, and Kinema Junpo.

Enquiries:
Call Usui at the YIDFF’S Tokyo Office at 81-3-5362-0672 or send an email to <usui@tokyo.yidff.jp>.