EIGA ARTS January Programme/Call for submissions/etc...

[Joss Winn]

This post contains information on a forthcoming screening of experimental
work in Japan.  It is quite long but split into sections so if you don't
want to read it all, just scroll down to the listing!

It is also a call for submissions, so if you want to show work in Japan and
have it forwarded to other possible venues (as I find out about them) read
on....

If you are considering starting a festival of your own, you may find the
first section of interest.



				EIGA ARTS



The first EIGA ARTS screening will be on Saturday, January 30th on the
fourth floor of the AVANSE building (Rm 3), Saga City, Kyushu, Japan.

This month's programme includes experimental films and videos from Japan,
Korea, the UK, and USA.

Below is a list of January's programme, including a basic break down of
costs in Japanese Yen (currently approx. 112Y=$1).  EIGA ARTS is free but
donations on the door are encouraged.  Filmmakers are paid and there is no
submission fee.

It is hoped that donations will cover filmmaker's fees.  All other costs
are initially supported by my salary...... Financial assistance for this
month's screenings has been promised by Saga AGA, a local group promoting
international relations. I have yet to be told how much I will be given,
although I anticipate around Y20,000.

The screening room at AVANSE seats up to 95 people, although more will be
squeezed in if necessary.  Good facilities for screening SVHS, VHS, 16mm
are available.  8mm projection should be possible soon.

I would be grateful if anyone has any comments on the way I am running EIGA
ARTS.  This is the first time for me, and I am doing it alone, so all
criticism, advice, etc. would be very helpful.

I'd like to thank everyone who has sent words of encouragement, festivals
that have been in touch with me, people that have put me in touch with
other people, and of course, film/video makers who have submitted their
work.  I hope EIGA ARTS manages to live up to my modest ideals for it. You
will notice that I am showing a number of video versions of films.  In the
case of Peach Baby Oil, it was beacuse I don't have 8mm projection
facilities.  A print was not available for A BIT BITTER and to ship an
insured print of BABY HOME was beyond my 'budget'. Originally, I anticpated
this problem and considered showing only work made on video. However, I
decided that if the filmmaker is not too concerned with showing video
copies, then I could deal with it too.  Besides, I'd rather show video
copies than ignore a vast and important body of work made on film. I have
consciously not developed a theme for the first month, prefering to offer
examples of the type of work I hope to continue to show at EIGA ARTS.  I
might run a particular theme some months, depending on how much time and
funding I have in order to be so selective.  My main objective is to show
experimental work, particularly that which questions the genre of
'documentary'.   It's been a lot of fun preparing for the first screening
and I would recommend it to anyone.  Now, my only hope is that people show
up....


LISTING:

EIGA ARTS - January 30th.  6.30-9.30pm

MONGOLIAN PATY
Manjome Jun (Colour, 16mm {8mm}, 19mins, 1996, JAPAN [No Dialogue])

CREOSOTE
Eric Saks  (B/W, Video, 42mins, 1997, USA [English Language])

MOMOIRO BEBIIOIRU/PEACH BABY OIL
Wada Junko (Colour, Video {8mm}, 16mins, 1995, JAPAN [Japanese with English
subtitles])

A BIT BITTER
Jung Ji-Woo (Colour, Video {16mm},14mins, 1996, KOREA [Korean with English
subtitles])

BABY HOME
David Woods  (B/W, Video {16mm}, 30mins, 1997, UK [No Dialogue])


TOTAL TIME: 121mins

TOTAL COST OF FILMS/VIDEOS: Y31,000
COST OF SCREENING ROOM AND USE OF EQUIPMENT: Y11,000
PROMOTION (flyers/posters): Y2,000

Below are descriptions of the work to be shown in January's programme.
Following this, is a description of EIGA ARTS for filmmakers considering
sending their work.  I will endeavour to forward/loan preview tapes to
similar film/video groups within Japan for possible screening/distribution
if the filmmaker wishes.  Arrangements should be made personally with me,
Joss Winn.


MONGOLIAN PATY

Grand Prize Winner at the 1997 IMAGE FORUM FESTIVAL, Japan.

"Mongolian Impressions." Shooting for this film was done in July, 1995 in
Mongolia (the Southern Gobi and elsewhere). Besides conventional shooting,
I also used single-frame shots and manually advanced time exposures.  The
film was edited and completed in September 1996." (Manjome Jun)

At first, this film seems like a simple one, constructed out of a series of
long one-shot takes, but the second half is shot with a manual shutter
release that subtly alters the shooting speed.  This form of shooting makes
one think, for example, of the changing speed of hand movements during a
musical recital.  The effect of this style is a transfiguration of
Mongolia's natural wonders into a personified landscape, and a humorous
portrayal of things moving ever so slightly (flowers, clouds, animals,
exercising women). The title 'Paty' is a variation of "Party"; by leaving
out one letter and by recording the title in a personalised style, the
director claims a broad array of meanings becomes possible.  This is a
piece in the director's series "Film as Dance."  (IMAGE FORUM FESTIVAL
Catalogue 1997)


CREOSOTE

"CREOSOTE combines two analogous stories into a unique vision of
individuality, and modern spirituality. The true story of Jared Negrete, a
young boy who was lost on a Boy Scout camping trip and never found, is
embroidered with the life story of St Francis, also known as the 'hippie
saint'.  The visual style is arresting, and creates a liminal world wherein
figurative representations fall away into hallucinatory abstractions.
CREOSOTE is executed through stop-frame animation and puppetry technniques,
reminiscent of graphic religious pamphlets.  Told through meditative
voice-overs, aleatoric sound design, and Retablo-like intertitles, CREOSOTE
presents a visceral religious experience." (Eric Saks)


MOMOIRO BEBIIOIRU (PEACH BABY OIL)

Grand Prize Winner at the 1996 IMAGE FORUM FESTIVAL, Japan.

"What should I do when I grow up?" A strange space only several inches
above my one room apartment.  Our twenty year old heroine dreams of staying
as a 'girl'...The sweet unreal narration and the provocative, erotic images
produce a strange chilling yet enthralling effect on the audience.  Wada
claims, "[What should I do] When my body, when my pet crocodile, when my
one bedroom apartment grows larger? At twenty I was acting like a child at
odds with herself, but I was already too old and large." (IMAGE FORUM
FESTIVAL catalogue 1996)


A BIT BITTER

Best Film at the Seoul Short Film Festival, 1996.

"This film depicts the crushing psychological fatigue a housewife
experiences in her everyday life in a working class household.  The husband
is a union activist whose grand liberal ideals are nowhere to be seen in
his family life.  The wife struggles to make ends meet, over burdened by
emotional stress.  The narrative style is that of a feature film, while the
director succeeds in conveying an actual realism." (YAMAGATA INTERNATIONAL
DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL catalogue 1997)

"Viewing A BIT BITTER requires a contextual understanding of Korea in the
80s.  It was a time dictatorship of the military regime was at it's utmost
peak, hence an age of repression especially for the young generation. Those
youths, now aging and wearied in the diverted political climate of the 90s,
are the ones this film seeks to look into. I want to talk about our common
everyday lives.  I especially wanted to talk about the people who are
living hard lives through the 90s with their children named after
'democracy' or 'freedom' or 'liberty'.  Having lived through the late 80s,
I greatly admire and respect their lives while at the same time feel deep
pain in my heart for them." (Jung Ji-Woo)


BABY HOME

"BABY HOME is an experimental documentary, shot in black & white 16mm,
lasting 30 minutes.  It employs only still images which "document"  the
last thirty minutes of a home birth.  The whole film was shot on a rostrum
camera (animation stand), where the 72 still images (from the only two 35mm
rolls of still film I shot at the time of the birth) are "explored", and
synchronized with the unedited sound track of the "event".  (The only words
discernable, at one moment, are "baby home" - spoken by a sibling child of
the new baby)."

"On a formal level the fact that the sound track is uncut, and each change
of still picture on the screen is synchronized with the "click-whirr" of
the still camera, leads the audience to realize that the film is a
documentary phenomenon which is both new in form and which does not hide
the minimal intervention involved.   The film is made to support the home
birth movement, which is opposed to the unnecessary hi-tech and
interventionist medicalization which has come to be the condition in most
hospital births.   The strategy with which the film is constructed attempts
to mirror the naturalness of the birth.  Unlike 25/25 fps live-action film
/ video footage of the "event", which cannot help but attempt to pretend
that the audience is involved, the audience in baby home is forced to watch
and wait, watch and explore the frame, and wait for the next frame-change.
BABY HOME thus seems to force an active role on the audience (unlike
live-action film) to explore, contemplate, empathize and think their own
thoughts.  I find it very interesting that the film, an experimental
documentary, seems to work with audiences in the both the avant-garde and
with
those focussed on birthing politics. (David Woods)




EIGA ARTS (Description)

EIGA ARTS is located in Saga City, Kyushu, Japan, and will show
experimental and documentary film/video.  Work that shifts between the
vague boundaries of 'documentary' and 'experimental', directly or
indirectly, is particularly welcome.  16mm films and VHS/SVHS (NTSC) videos
from around the world will be screened to a predominantly Japanese
audience.  Because of this, in most cases, non-Japanese work should not
rely HEAVILY on the use of text, dialogue or narration in order to
appreciate it. This judgement is left to the filmmakers themselves. EIGA
ARTS will run for approximately two hours each month, with time for
discussion afterwards.  A brief programme will be provided at each
screening with a description of every film in both English and Japanese.
EIGA ARTS is free and non-profit making.  Donations  are encouraged to
cover the monthly running costs and all money received goes directly into
renting and purchasing future films/videos. All other funding is,
presently, my own. The current ticket price for local cinemas is around
Y1600 (approx. $13).

It is hoped that EIGA ARTS will provide a venue for people to watch foreign
and domestic work they would rarely have the opportunity to see, allow
foreign filmmakers to reach a broader audience, and promote documentary and
experimental filmmaking among the local community.

Filmmakers whose work is shown will receive some money, agreed upon prior
to the screening.  If donations continually exceed the monthly costs, extra
money will be sent to the filmmakers whose work is shown at that time.

All questions and submissions should be sent to me at the following addresses:

edq39077 at saga-ed.go.jp


1217 Shinden
Kubota-cho
Saga-gun
Saga-ken
849-0203
JAPAN

I look forward to hearing from you!


Please label video packages as 'gift' with a value of around $10.  This is
to avoid problems at customs. Importing and screening moving-image material
that shows pubic hair is frowned upon and and most cases prohibited. Please
don't let that stop you from submitting such work.  I may still show it.



Joss Winn