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Princess
Plum P-udding
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JAPAN
/ 1999 / Japanese/ Color / Video / 35 min
Director, Script, Photography, Sound, Editing: Terashima Mari
Additional filming: Abe Yukiko
Sound effects: Kizu Yuji
Narration: Konno Yukari
Producer, Source: Terashima Mari
65 Ichijojisatonomae-cho, Sakyo-ku
Kyoto-shi, Kyoto 606-8117 JAPAN
Phone & Fax: 81-75-791-8294
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Terashima
Mari
Graduated from Kyoto College of Art in 1989. Won Grand Prize at the
Image Forum Festival in 1991. Annual screening at the Image Forum
Film Festival since 1991. Installation work exhibited in the Mito
Annual 92 at the Art Tower Mito, in 1992. Film screened at the Oberhausen
Short Film Festival in 1995. Work has toured around the world under
the auspices of The Japan Foundation since 1997.
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In 19th century Europe, photographs of the "grotesque" such as deformed
bodies and corpses were popular and enthusiastically traded and collected.
In contemporary Japan, a video about voluptuous little Sayomi-chan
who loves to collect Mickey Mouse paraphernalia - how do people look
at her as she sways to Baroque in a white negligee? Do modern day
cavaliers court her? Will her domineering mother save her from evil
eyes?
The director hands her the video camera and attempts to present the
world through her perspective. She dresses her up in extravagance,
shows off her glamorous presence, and proves that she is no sissy
object or victim - she is larger than life.
Director's
Statement
It was a shock to meet the main character of this film, a woman with
a slight mental disability, since I had never had the chance to know
someone with disabilities. By working with her in the process of making
this film, I was able to merge documentary techniques with experimental
images, the latter being a style that had dominated all my previous
work. This was possible in part because I had the strong urge to try
to understand her, rather than to force my own image of her onto the
screen. It is a myth that a mentally disabled person possesses an
innocent soul, thus, is perfectly beautiful. In fact there were times
she tried to make us give up the filming by complaining "I don't care,"
and other times when she gave her mother a hard time. But all of this
is what I like about her. It was impressive that Simone, a Drag Queen
who played a role in this film, was actually jealous of this woman,
a natural Diva.
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COPYRIGHT:Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Organizing Committee
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