Eiga Arts Experimental Film Festival with Scott Stark, Yamada Isao and Onishi Kenji

[Joss Winn]

Hello everyone,

It seems to have been a while since I contributed anything to this list.
The last time I wrote, I had just come back from Tokyo after selecting
Japanese films for last weekend's Eiga Arts festival (13/14 November).  The
festival went well and Scott Stark left to go onto Kobe(15th)
with the festival's foreign films and further screenings of his own work.
>From there he went to Nagoya(16th) and will finish in Tokyo(20th).

Over two days we presented 33 films in four programmes, split pretty
evenly between Japanese and foreign (mostly North American) work in a
Buddhist temple (the screen went in front of a rather large golden shrine
with the Buddha in its center), in the middle of Saga city (pop. 180,000).
About 150 people came over the two days, two newspapers ran articles before
and after the festival and the  prefectural NHK (PBS/BBC equivalent), ran a
5 minute piece on the festival (twice during prime time) and then a news
report in the afternoon after the first screening.  Much of the media
attention concentrated on Scott and myself, two foreigners doing something
different and 'international' in a fairly rural part of Japan.  For
information on Scott Stark, take a look at the April Eiga Arts calendar
(there's a link at the bottom of this post).

Scott's selection of foreign films was, as expected, very strong.  My
personal favourite of the films Scott brought over, was Konrad Steiner's
film, 'Floating By Eagle Rock/She is Asleep', 16mm, 19 minutes, 1999:

"The film is divided into three parts. The first part is quiet, but should
be played with the sound turned on. The second and third parts are set to
the music of John Cage's piece "She is Asleep." The montage of these parts
was edited to the music. Many of the superimpositions were made as double,
triple and quadruple exposures in camera, although some were created in the
lab. The film is a song to the beauty and intelligence of Simone, my
wife."(KS)

The superimpositions are remarkably well done, the colours are particularly
vivid and the mixtures of travel and home footage were beautifully crafted
into gentle, absorbing, dreamy rhythms.

Throughout the festival, I spent much of my time under the projection table
working the sound and also had the pleasure of assisting the projectionist
(his assistant also showed up on the second day).  In the past I have read
comments that showing film is always a performance and having
assisted the projectionsists and watched them working, I would have to
agree.  It's an art! Both worked together like dancers at times as if they
both knew each other's next move, while I remained under the table trying to
get the levels right for them.  The projection wasn't always perfect (they
should have carried binoculars) but was very smooth and trouble free (having
two 16mm and one S8mm projector helped) and I'd say that about 90% of the
projection was just right.

A couple of things I think worth noting for foreign filmmakers who hope
their work will show in none English speaking countries:  The descriptions
of some of the films Scott brought over were often very specificaly playing
with the English language and were very very difficult to render into
comprehensible Japanese.  Even in English they are challenging at times and
when I was translating them with a Japanese friend (with an English degree),
I was often forced to edit the descriptions in order to render them into
meaningful Japanese.  It's something to keep in mind.  Only the largest of
international festivals are going to have the resources to hire professional
translators (and even they might not be used to translating playfully poetic
or complex theoretical statements). Most small venues like my own, rely on
university educated friends whose English is very good but is challenged by
language that is specifically theoretical or playful. I don't mean to
suggest we all write comments for our films in idiot's English, but it has
taught me, at least, to try to provide comments that, like the images I
make, communicate to my audience whoever they are, wherever they are.  Of
course, if the intended effect is to confuse the reader/audience, then
ignore the above.

This relates to something that both the Japanese filmmakers I invited to
Eiga Arts said before the screenings of their films and other Japanese
films.  Onishi Kenji asked the audience not to think too much while watching
his films, but to just watch them.  Yamada Isao encouraged the audience to
relax, enjoy the films and let their imagination go wild.  Both filmmakers
have said on several occasions to me that they think Japanese experimental
films often differ to foreign films in that Japanese films (Yamada's and
Onishi's films are perhaps very typical of this) primarily try to provoke
emotion rather than reasoning.  Clearly a broad statement which doesn't
speak for every Japanese filmmaker but on the whole I think there is
evidence of it.

The festival marked the last Eiga Arts of the year.  Since January, Eiga
Arts has screened films and videos by Manjome Jun, Eric Saks, Wada Junko,
Jung Ji-Woo, David Woods, Leslie Raymond, Robert Arnold, Lisa DiLillo, Lisa
McElroy, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Erik Deutschman, Mark Street, Mark
O'Connell, Onishi Kenji, Yamazaki Mikio, Tachibana Kaoru, Mitsuki Ai, Craig
Lindley, Scott Stark, Brian Frye, Tsuchiya Yutaka, Video Press, Ogawamachi
Cine Club, Takahiko Iimura, Murakami Kenji, Sam Easterson, Koike Teruo,
Peter Hutton, Leighton Pierce, Jon Jost, Janie Geiser, Martin Arnold, Konrad
Steiner, Kerry Laitala, Phil Solomon, David Sherman, Ito Takeshi, Sueoka
Ichiro, Kurokawa Michiko, Okuyama Jun'ichi, Yamada Isao, Ishida Takashi,
Serizawa Ichiro, Ota Yo, Julie Murray, Lewis Klahr, Mathias Muller, Abigail
Child, Henry Hills, and Abraham Ravett.

Since last month, I have been running things a little differently and rather
than doing a single, monthly screening, I am now sending films to other
venues after my Eiga Arts screening.  October's films have shown in Tokyo
this month and will show once more in Fukuoka.  As I mentioned before, I
also set up something similar
for Scott so he can tour with the films to other venues.  Personally I would
prefer to spend more time exhibiting films this way, perhaps only doing
different programmes every other month (six programmes or so a year) and I
think for filmmakers it is better to  try to reach as many people as
possible while the films are in Japan.  Fortunately, after ten months or so,
Japanese programmers seem keen to work with me to set up screenings outside
of Eiga Arts.  In addition to this, I also hope to send more Japanese films
abroad.  It's always been my intention but I only managed it once this year
(The Robert Beck Memorial Cinema, NYC, USA).  It takes a fair bit of
organisation but seems a pretty obvious extension to what I am doing here in
Japan with Eiga Arts.

Anyway, enough from me for now.

best wishes,
Joss Winn
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Eiga Arts, Saga City, Japan.   josswinn at iname.com
Tel. (81)-(0)-(952)68-4722     Fax. (81)-(0)-(952)68-2989
Mobile. 090-7165-9998
http://www.sirius.com/~sstark/org/eiga/eiga.html
Festival URL: http://www.bunbun.ne.jp/~ktk/eiga/
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