Yamagata: Awards

[Eija Margit Niskanen]

At 05:37 PM 10/27/99 +0900, Markus wrote:
>Just back from Yamagata with a terrible cold, thanks to many an
>alchohol-sodden, all-night, high-volume discussion session drifting from bar
>to bar. 

It seems I missed some fun, since I did not happen to find those all-night
discussions.

The Asian Currents, and all the special programs Markus covered so well
were absolutely the the most interesting programs at Yamagata. The official
competition differs quite much from those other events, since some of the
films seem to lean a little too much towards a well-produced Tv documentary
for my taste - especially "The Source", a documentary about the Beat
generation: the director had thrown in everything except the kitchen sink.
The awarding of "Images of the Absence" kind of surprises me - in my
opinion the film ran out of ideas half way through. I personally liked
"Divorce Iranian Style" by Kim Longinotto & Zia Mir-Hosseini. It very
humorously dug under the general assumptions about totally powerless women
of Iran.

eija