| 1999-09-11 | | | New Asian Currents Special Programs |
New Asian Currents Special Programs
***VIDEO ACT! presents***
Filming-Screening-Changing /
Video Activism in Japan and Korea
Oct. 20 (Wed) - 21 (Thurs)
Video activism is not about the video work itself. A video needs to be FILMED, SCREENED, and DISCUSSED in order to change society. In this program from Korea and Japan, documentaries about the homeless, about women's sexuality, about struggles in the labor movement, and other specific themes will be screened and discussed by video activists from both countries. Recent interest in public access media and the use of the Internet will also be highlighted themes. International solidarity is a shared goal.
Taking up the initiative will be VIDEO ACT!, a new center for the networking and distribution of independent video works in Japan.
VIDEO ACT! calls for three-minute video entries on the theme "Nippon, War, Me -1999-," where anybody with a message can have the floor.
For details about VIDEO ACT! and their catalogue, contact:
fax: +81-3-3711-5639
e-mail: yt_w-tv@st.rim.or.jp
http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~yt_w-tv/VIDEOACT.html.
***Wu Yii-feng and Hara Kazuo present***
Case Study: Full Shot (Taiwan) and Cinema Juku (Japan) / Spreading the Filmmaking Movement
Oct. 22 (Fri) - 24 (Sun)
Taiwanese documentarist Wu Yii-feng (Chen Tsai-gen and His Neighbors) and his production group Full Shot Communication Foundation have been organizing video workshops around Taiwan for the last five years. In Japan, it's also been five years since Hara Kazuo (The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On) started up his annual Cinema Juku event, in which young people interested in filmmaking participate in a week-long seminar of screenings and discussions. Both groups reflect their leaders' shift to rural areas and to spreading the filmmaking movement.
At YIDFF, Wu will present works by four Full Shot workshop students: videos including those by a filmmaker from the Tayal tribe and a director with hearing disabilities. Hara will show Cinema Juku's first 16mm production, My Mishima, a documentary about the people of a small offshore island.
Attending will be a large delegation from Full Shot in Taiwan, to give fuel to the stimulating discussions about the future of documentary in Taiwan and Japan.
***Jurors for the Ogawa Shinsuke Prize***
NAKANO Rie (Producer, Distributor / Japan)
Born and raised in Izu, Shizuoka. Established Pandora Co. Ltd. in 1987, after working for a major construction firm and a film distribution company. Was involved in the women's liberation movement from the late 1970s and organized independent film screenings from an anti-sexual violence position.
The Oscar-winning feature documentary The Times of Harvey Milk was the first film Pandora distributed. Other Pandora titles include One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train, Pictures of an Old World, The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, The Celluloid Closet, The Murmuring, Habitual Sadness, and six titles of A. N. Sokurov. Pandora is the only company in Japan that works constantly in the theatrical distribution of documentaries.
Nakano is an associate producer of Sokurov's long documentary Spiritual Voices. Her support for emerging filmmakers can be seen in groundbreaking work with Jane Campion, Byun Young-joo, Caroline Link, Sento Naomi, and other directors. She also has experience in directing and producing around 50 educational videos for women as well as in translating Keeping Secrets.
LIN Xu-dong (Film critic / China)
Born in Shanghai in 1951. Graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Master of Arts in 1988. Has been teaching documentary film at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute TV Department since 1988. Among his published works are: Film in Mainland China: The Sixth Generation? (1995) and About the 'Neo-Documentary'in Mainland China (1996). Has directed documentaries including: Laozihao (1996) and Zhalongde Ren (1996). Acted as the General Secretary and International Coordinator for the First International Conference on Documentary Films in Beijing in 1997.