<font size=2 face="sans-serif">First, a little disclosure about the group
psychology of film programmers: we tend to feel very supportive towards
our programming colleagues when said colleagues validate our own programming
decisions. In this case I'm perhaps been prompted into very sympathetic
frame of mind; the Yamagata competition selection includes three
titles I have either run or have scheduled soon. </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Two are THE ACT OF KILLING and A WORLD
NOT OUR OWN. The third is the earlier, 'part one' of NAMI NO KOE, the 142
minute NAMI NO OTO. We ran this here late last year, as part of the public
program that coincided with the visit of the Visible Evidence documentary
conference. This was the same cut that has already had some international
festivals screening, for example at Locarno in August last year.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">My observations are restricted to that
version. I agree that even at 142 minute it is perhaps too long (but certainly
didn't need to be cut more tightly); had a small audience (it was a few
days before Christmas) and a few walkouts. But then I think Australians
have never seen anything like it. especially with subject matter and a
synopsis most would have expected to result, on screen, in a series of
conventionally positioned talking heads and conventionally unpacked first
person stories. As Marcus said, it is as the most formally interesting
of the 3/11 films - not the least because the talking heads are just not
looking in the direction we expect them to be gazing, or speaking to an
interlocutor we expect them to be in conversation with, or being edited
at the 'natural' points we expect.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">But based on what I saw, I think it's
more than just a formal oddity. Certainly, it is IMHO in the Great Tradition
of Japanese documentary, in what it does best, and reflects the reasons
why a few of us are on this list (or keep going back to Yamagata): that
tradition's kind of Interview Film, and its forms of narrative that evolves
its arguments and themes through a respect for, curiosity about, patience
with its informants - rather than the western doco tendency to interrogate
and expose. In that sense, it is something different - and much more interesting
than mere 'oral history'.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">I think NAMI NO KOE advances and opens
up that tradition through its mirroring device and its durations. Within
them - those durations and that structure - there is something more than
formal play. I also got much more psychic detail and social
subtext from this than from any other film about 3/11. It told me a lot
about how this culture manages major emotions like trauma and fear - but
not through 'highpoints' of emotional outburst or breakdown, but through
a constant semaphore of involuntary tics, bodies shifting their position
whilst faces didn't, and especially through socially and conversationally
reinforcing laughter and nervous giggles. As with many of the best Asian
documentary, it's shots are looking for very different things and it keeps
very different things and meanings in its final cut. Fujioka-san is very
right here: it is maybe a film that uses 'talking' bodies rather than Talking
Heads. This isn't to diminish the interest of the stories: at times the
flat, matter-a fact-ness of how and what people did to survive is curious
and surprising. As is how these stories cue, at different points the (to
me) </font><font size=3>opaque</font><font size=2 face="sans-serif"> body
language. </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">As Marcus hints, it perhaps the sections
need to be experienced sectionally, episodically, maybe partially (It will
make an interesting comparison with THE ACT OF KILLING, which has some
similar strengths and weaknesses, even if its often psychopathic informants
are very different people). If the new version is anything like the 142
minute one, t certainly needs to be experienced.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">QT</font>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Best wishes</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Quentin Turnour, Manager, Arc Canberra
Cinema Programs,</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">National Film and Sound Archive of Australia,</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">quentin.turnour@nfsa.gov.au</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Fax: +61 2 6249 8159</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Ph +61 2 6248 2054</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Mob: + 61 4 428 368908</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">[Please note that I am often absent
Mondays]</font>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"> </font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">From:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">fujioka asako <asakof@tkd.att.ne.jp></font>
<br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">To:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif"><kinejapan@lists.service.ohio-state.edu>,
</font>
<br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Date:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">25/06/2013 07:35 PM</font>
<br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Subject:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">[KineJapan]
Nami no koe</font>
<br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Sent by:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">kinejapan-bounces@lists.service.ohio-state.edu</font>
<br>
<hr noshade>
<br>
<br>
<br><tt><font size=2>In response to Mark's comment on the film in Yamagata's
competition, I'd<br>
like to mention that _Nami no koe_ is part of a trilogy: _Nami no oto_,<br>
_Nami no koe_, and the final film _Utau hito_. All films deal with<br>
storytelling -- the idea that people tell stories to _someone_. In the
first<br>
two films, people start out by sharing their 2011 tsunami experiences,
and<br>
go on to speak about their lives and life philosophies. They speak in<br>
on-on-one conversations, to people who are close to them (family members,<br>
close friends, work colleagues) or if the filmmakers did not find adequate<br>
partners, they themselves became mirrors to bounce off stories. In the
third<br>
film of the trilogy (which is also already completed), the stories told
are<br>
local folk stories carried on from the past. <br>
I'm not sure if the films work well with English subtitles, as these are<br>
really oral films and the nuances you can feel in the emotions between
the<br>
conversationalists are the hook that draws you into their life stories.
You<br>
get a real feel for their relationships in their daily lives -- sometimes<br>
funny, sometimes endearing. <br>
Also, the films are interesting experiments that deal with body language.
I<br>
find Japanese people rarely seat facing opposite each other and speak their<br>
minds. As a young person, I was told that it is rude to look at another's<br>
face squarely, and have no memory of having done so with my parents. The<br>
filmmakers speak about how people sitting side by side driving in a car<br>
often open up to each other. In many ways this series of films is an archive<br>
of testimonies, but more so a window into diverse people's lives -- with<br>
much respect and compassion. <br>
<br>
The films will be shown at Kobe Eiga Shiryokan this weekend as part of
a<br>
retrospective (prospective) of Hamaguchi Ryusuke. <br>
Fujioka Asako <br>
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</font></tt><a href="http://kobe-eiga.net/program/2013/06/#a001909"><tt><font size=2>http://kobe-eiga.net/program/2013/06/#a001909</font></tt></a><tt><font size=2><br>
<br>
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</font></tt><a href="http://kobe-eiga.net/schedule/2013/06/"><tt><font size=2>http://kobe-eiga.net/schedule/2013/06/</font></tt></a><tt><font size=2><br>
</font></tt><a href="http://kobe-eiga.net/schedule/2013/07/"><tt><font size=2>http://kobe-eiga.net/schedule/2013/07/</font></tt></a><tt><font size=2><br>
<br>
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</font></tt><a href=http://prospective.fictive.jp/index.html><tt><font size=2>http://prospective.fictive.jp/index.html</font></tt></a><tt><font size=2><br>
<br>
+++++++++++++++<br>
<br>
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 14:15:47 -0400<br>
From: Markus Nornes <amnornes@umich.edu><br>
Subject: [KineJapan] Fwd: YIDFF News June 24, 2013 [Special Issue]<br>
To: "kinejapan@lists.service.ohio-state.edu"<br>
<kinejapan@lists.service.ohio-state.edu><br>
Message-ID:<br>
<CANoSnpDHU+oBBKhuj90JGGk_-edxzczGSBTaOVYahr4JJ2hmpw@mail.gmail.com><br>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"<br>
<br>
Yamagata has released information on their competition for October. The<br>
Japanese entry is Voices from the Waves (Nami no koe), by Hamaguchi Ryusuke<br>
and Sakai Ko. I haven't read much from the many online interviews and blog<br>
entries on the film, so I don't write with much confidence. But what I<br>
thought were a set of short films based on geography, yet released under
the<br>
Nami no koe title, now appear to be one big massive film.<br>
<br>
But don't confuse the 213 minute running time with monumentality. It's
the<br>
most intimate of films. And one of the most experimental of the 311 films.<br>
The rough cuts I saw were nothing but two people talking to each other,
face<br>
to face, and with almost no prompting from the filmmakers. The directors
sit<br>
two tsunami survivors in community halls or libraries, and let them talk
to<br>
each other.<br>
<br>
There are only three basic shots. An establishing shot taken at a 90 degree<br>
angle to the two speakers. And then shot reverse shots where one of the<br>
speakers looks directly at the camera. Through a fascinating cinematic<br>
trick, the people speak in direct address to the camera even though they
are<br>
actually talking to?and looking at?their interlocutor. It's a very strange<br>
feeling, best to be experienced without knowing exactly how they did it.<br>
<br>
This formal aspect to the film?added to the parallel formality of two<br>
Japanese strangers talking to each other?makes this one of the better 311<br>
films. It's certainly the most innovative. But I have serious doubts about<br>
the running length. Very few people are going to last through four hours.<br>
It signals a complete lack of distance to their material. A kind of<br>
shiryo-sei that regrettably blinds the filmmakers to the desires, needs
and<br>
capabilities of their viewers. Can you tell I'm bumming?<br>
<br>
In the rough, I thought this looked like a very promising film. I'm pretty<br>
disappointed by this choice. Obviously, they needed an editor.<br>
<br>
Markus<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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