Yamagata Film Festival

[Aaron Gerow]

>I would like to thank all Kinejapaners who came all the way to Kyoto. It
>was a great time when we discussed after symposium. I hope there would be a
>next "meeting" in Yamagata!

Itakura-san kindly mentioned Yamagata, so I thought I'd spread the word 
too.

The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, one of the main 
film events in Japan and a great place to get together and talk film, 
will be taking place this month from the 19th to the 25th.  The main 
focus is the International Competition (the only Japan-produced film this 
year is _2H_ directed by Li Ying), but there is also the very important 
New Asian Currents (on up-and-coming documentarists), a retrospective of 
Joris Ivens's work, the World Special Program featuring video 
documentaries from around the world, a video activist program, and much 
more.

About _2H_:

2H/Li Ying/JAPAN
1998/35mm/Color, B&W/120min.

2H combines documentary and dramatic film techniques to depict the gamut 
of psychological passages experienced by two Chinese expatriates in Tokyo 
as they attempt to accommodate their
existences to the two universal events of life-birth and death. The 
protagonist is Ma Jinsan, a 95-year-old former Kuomingtang general who 
defected to Japan nearly 50 years ago, shortly after the Communist 
revolution. Ma's approaching death is the force that energizes the people 
of this revealing film.

This is Li Ying's first feature-length film.


Asako can say more about New Asian Currents (if she's recovered after the 
catalog work), but the Japanese works this year are:

After School / Kobayashi Shigeru / 20 min
Bicycle / Kobayashi Shigeru / 30 min
Annyong-Kimchi / Matsue Tetsuaki / 52 min
The New God / Tsuchiya Yutaka / 98 min
Princess Plum P-udding / Terashima Mari / 35 min

There will also be a special program on the work of VIDEO ACT!, a 
Japan-based video activist group, along with that of Korean video 
activists.

Hara Kazuo will also be running a special program.

My wife is coordinating the Ivens retro (we co-edited the catalog 
together), and there's a lot there worth seeing (especially for those 
with an interest in China).  The catalog also has a discussion between 
Marceline Loridan and Ogawa Shinsuke, as well as an old interview with 
Ivens in which he discusses his work on anti-Japanese films for the US 
during WWII.

Anyway, there's a lot to see and do, so those in Japan should think about 
trying to come.  More information can be obtained at the YIDFF site (the 
site will be updated frequently):

http://www.city.yamagata.yamagata.jp/yidff/en/home.html

or by contacting the YIDFF office:

yidff at bekkoame.ne.jp

Itakura-san's suggestion we try to get together again is a good one.  
I'll be there from the 21st to the 26th, though I'll probably spend most 
of my time taking care of my son.  Maybe we should have an Ian party?

Aaron Gerow
Associate Professor
International Student Center
Yokohama National University
79-1 Tokiwadai
Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501
JAPAN
E-mail: gerow at ynu.ac.jp
Phone: 81-45-339-3170
Fax: 81-45-339-3171