Japanese experimental films available for screening

[Joss Winn]

Hello,

This is Joss from Eiga Arts, Japan.  I'm writing to let you know that I can
confirm two programmes of Japanese films available for screening between
April and the end of July 2000.  I have curated the programmes myself mostly
from films over the past decade to include a fairly small but interesting
sample of some of the most interesting work I've had the opportunity to see.
There are two programmes available.  Although the work is diverse, the
programmes are fairly coherent and all the work is suitable for a
non-Japanese speaking audience. One programme comprises mostly 16mm films
available on 16mm prints for screening.  The other is all 8mm work available
on 16mm/Super 8mm/NTSC SVHS video for screening.  Both programmes are of
equally high quality work and many of the films in both programmes have won
prizes in recognition of their excellence.

The film rentals costs are VERY low by Japanese standards:  Since these
films are not from a distributor, they are available for whatever you can
genuinely afford PLUS insured shipping to the next venue by UPS or FED EX.
The film makers have offered their films on this basis in the hope that they
will be shown widely outside of Japan.  However, I would also like to be
able to offer them something once the films are returned to Japan so please
donate generously! Were these films distributed by a Japanese distributor,
rental fees would be approx. $500 per programme per screening.  The
filmmakers included in this programme have consciously avoided using a
Japanese distributor due to the high rental fees involved and the difficulty
for smaller venues to afford them.

Preview video tapes are not available for inspection but will be available
for press screenings once your screening has been confirmed.  Sorry, but I
just don't have the facilities to run off many tapes.

If you would like to show one or both programmes of films, please let me
know the best dates for you, your location and the rental fee you are able
pay.  Shipping fees are seperate and are the responsibility of the venue.  A
FED EX/UPS tracking number must be provided within three days after the
films have been screened.  Once I have the details from everyone who are
interested, I can provide you with the name and address of the person you
will be shipping the films to and you can make arangments with them as to
whether they prefer UPS or FED EX, etc.

Finally, if you have any suggestions which might make this tour of Japanese
films run smoothly, let me know!

The programme details currently available are below.  I will endeavour to
provide full programme notes by mid-March.  All of the films have been
confirmed by the filmmakers but still may be subject to slight change.

Many thanks for your interest in Eiga Arts and Japanese experimental film.

Best wishes,
Joss Winn

---------------------------------------------------------
Eiga Arts
1217 Shinden, Kubota-cho, Saga-ken. 849-0203. Japan.
josswinn at iname.com    Mobile. 090-7165-9998
Tel. (81)-(0)-(952)68-4722     Fax. (81)-(0)-(952)68-2989
http://www.sirius.com/~sstark/org/eiga/eiga.html
Festival URL: http://www.bunbun.ne.jp/~ktk/eiga/
---------------------------------------------------------

Film programmes:

(ALL 16mm PRINTS)
VM Drifting - Yamazaki Mikio (9)
Escaping Lights - Harada Ippei (13)
Streams - Yonaha Masayuki (26)
Corrosion-Tone - Miyake Nagaru (30)
The Color Of Machines - Horikawa Makiko (5)
Ecosystem 9: A Quicksand Eclipse - Koike Teruo (13)

TOTAL RUNNING TIME:  96 minutes

NOTE:  Either Harada's or Miyake's film may be withdrawn if scheduling time
is a problem.


(VARIED SCREENING FORMATS)
Cloned Chromosomes (16mm) - Tachibana Kaoru (5)
Continuous Rectangles (8mm) - Harada Ippei (13)
STILL (SVHS) - Shiho Kano (15)
LEVEL BLUE (8mm) - Kurihara Mie (13)
Celluloid memories (8mm) - Onishi Kenji (7)
Deportation (16mm) - Saruyama Norihiro (3)
Ecosystem 5: A Tremulous Stone (16mm) - Koike Teruo (16)

TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 72 minutes



Programme details:

YAMAZAKI MIKIO
Drifting VM (1990, 16mm, Colour, Sound, 9mins)

I made this film in the same way that I would take a girl's skirt off and
remove their underwear.  I took off the skirt and the underwear but found
nothing there on which to base our existence.  Beyond the images there was
only light and darkness.  That's why I've been drifting through a dream of
life (Vida) and death (Muerte) hoping to grasp hold of the outline ahead.

YAMAZAKI MIKIO was born in 1959, went to Hokkaido University and majored in
Cultural Studies. In 1980, he participated in the Fuji 8mm film contest and
by 1983, he had made (IR(JImage Phantom Killer(IS(J, which was screened around
Hokkaido. In 1994, he completed his first theatrical film, (IR(JPU(IS(J. As well as
making films, he has also written and edited (IR(JA Reader of Yakuza Films(IS(J,
(IR(JTheory on Canned Coffee Landscapes(IS(J and (IR(JWhere is the hero going?(IS(J.




Harada Ippei
Escaping LIghts, 1992, 16mm, color, sound, 13 minutes
Notes not yet available.

Continuous Rectangles, 1987, Single 8mm, color, sound, 13 minutes

When I was small, films were not the things you saw in movie theatres.  They
meant my father's 8mm home movies projected on the white walls of our house.
I'm now recording my own son, so history is repeating itself.

Born in 1960 in Tokyo.  Prizes: Honorable Mention at Image Forum Festival
1987 for Continuous Rectangles.  To Sum UP (96-98) nominated for Dragons and
Tigers Award in 17th Vancouver international Film Festival.  Has recently
been researching the pleasurable melding of various media around the axis of
images.  Active as a VJ.


Tachibana Kaoru
Cloned Chromosomes, 1995, Single 8mm, color, sound, 4 minutes

Notes not yet available.

TACHIBANA KAORU is a survivor of the 70's Tokyo Rocker's scene. Since the
1990's he's swapped his guitar for a camera and set about making radical
films.  These days, as well as making his own films, he shoots real life
background images for computer games.


Onishi Kenji
Celluloid Memories, 1990-2000, Super 8mm, color, sound, 7 minutes

I first started making Celluloid Memories back in 1990 with my first 8mm
camera.  Since then, every year, when I've felt like it, I've sketched a
huge amount of private film.  With this, I've been editing and compiling
material according to how I was feeling at the time.
The film is about my family, patches of my garden and pure light/colour.
Originally, the film was 70 minutes long, made up of 3 minute rolls of film
edited in sequence.  However, later, I cut it down to 25 minutes, added
additional material, cut it again and it gradually changed shape.
Celluloid Memories isn't a work of conscious 'expression', simply a 'hobby'
film within which appears my creations.  In the first place, I think of 8mm
film as a luxury 'toy'.  As someone who loves films, I'm pursuing ecstacy in
filmmaking; not as '8mm movies' but as '8mm film' and the process of making
them.  As a filmmaker, Celluloid Memories unconsciously embodies this
pursuit.  There's no particular direction, just natural happenings occurring
in everyday spaces.  I just left the shooting of the images up to gut
feeling.  The material that I shot has little intentional purpose behind it,
and much is left to chance while I'm shooting.  For me, this way of working
has a sacred feeling about it.
Films watched using one's head bring new findings but, for me, there's no
quality of thrill or excitement.  There are definite limits to the means of
intellectual expression and by doing so the world of physical sensation,
life and spirit is diluted.  My interest in film is pursuing this feeling of
excitement.  This is what I expect in experimental film.  In the films I
make and films by artists I am attracted to, there are many such primitive
works.  When I touch film, I not only receive something from that film, but
I willingly search for hidden vibrations in the work.
Watch a film and you only get what the film has to offer: isn't that a waste
of time?  Whatever it is, it's a man-made creation, and 'art' is an
ornamented, convenient kaleidoscopic word that isn't as important as it
appears.


ONISHI KENJI was born in 1973. Began making 8mm films in 1990 and has made
over 100 films including short works. Recently has focused on longer 16mm
films such as SQUAREWORLD (1995) and continues to direct problematic and
radical films like AQUARIUM CITY (1996) and ZETCHO (1997) that have
attracted international attention and acclaim. Onishi's films have been
praised in Japan and have been invited to various festivals in Asia, the
USA, Canada and Europe. As well as making films, Onishi operates CINEMA
TRAIN, a Tokyo venue for screening and distributing experimental film.  He
is currently working on his second 35mm feature film.



Horikawa Makiko
The Color Of Machines, 16mm, color, sound, 5 minutes

Notes Not Yet Available

Koike Teruo
Ecosystem 9: A Quicksan Eclipse, 1993, 16mm, color, sound, 13 minutes
Ecosystem 5: A Tremulous Stone, 1988, 16mm, color, sound, 17 minutes

No Notes.

Born in 1951 in Aichi prefecture, Koike is well know in Japan for his
Ecosystem series of film.  He is currently completing number 11.  Up to
10,000 35mm still photographs are taken and then rephotographed, sometime
six impositions deep, on to Single 8mm film to create a very densely
textured composition of natural abstractions.



Shiho Kano
STILL, 1999, Single 8mm, color, sound, 15 minutes.

Notes not yet available.
Winner of the Grand Prix, Media City Experimental Film Festival, 2000.
Award For Encouragement, VIPER Film Festival 1999.

Born 1974 in Tokyo.  Currently a student at Musabi Art University, Tokyo.
Films include: MAMI-MAMI (97), Into Home (97), Landscape (98), White
Tablecloth (2000).



Saruyama Norihiro
Deportation, 1995, Single 8mm, color, sound, 3 minutes.

An octopus or a human?  With the use of extremely rapid cutting and close-up
photography, the two subjects overlap and intertwine to the point where we
can't discern them from each other.  As if displaying internal organs, the
creepy images invite the dark curiosities of a freak show, creating a
violent world of the grotesque.  Saruyama claims, "By splicing together
these fragments of close up photography film, I wanted these unintelligable
images to become clearer over time."
Award for Excellence, Image Forum Festival 1996.

Born 1972 in Tokyo.  Graduated from Image Forum institute of Moving Image in
1995.  Studied painting at Tokyo School of Visual Art. His films include:
The Prince (93), Bird of Paradise (94).


Kurihara Mie
Level Blue, 1999, Single 8mm, color, sound, 13 minutes
A girl is waiting for her lover in the rain. That night, the girl sees
nothing but blue in her dreams.  In the darkness, blue ripples spread out
silently. Winner of an Honourable Mention, Media City Experimental Film
Festival, Canada, 2000.

Born 1971.  She began making films in 1993.  Main works: WINTER CALM (94)
SON OF THE AIR (95).


Miyake Nagaru
Corrosion Tone, 1998, 16mm, B/W, Sound, 30 minutes
The reconfirmation of visual perception derived from touch.  Bodies become
an automation wriggling in the midst or ruines, monochrome with strong
contrasts.  The mosaic of a mirror, inlaid as though afraid of the void,
scatters light at random, and strings attached throughout the body transmit
delicate vibrations.  A high level performance film.
Winner of an Honourable Mention, 1999 Image Forum Festival, Japan.

Born 1974.  Entered Tama Art University in 1995.  Hi films include:
Jikan-juku no Yuragi (95); Shinkei-setsu Shodo (97-98); Hizai-Sha (99).


Yonaha Masayuki
Streams, 1997, 16mm, color, sound, 26 minutes

When I dropped a drop of water onto a frame of film, it created ripples
which slowly spread out.  The ripples caused a tiny breeze and the film
began to turn.  Watching in astonishment, I grabbed my camera and started to
film.  The camera, however, was empty.  After I thought about it for a while
and realised there was nothing else I could do, I developed the film, edited
it and added music.   Winner of Special Jury Prize, 1998 Image Forum
Festival, Japan.

Born in 1972 in Okinawa.  Studied filmmaking at Image Forum Institute of
Moving Image and Tama Art University.  His films include: Ataraxia (97); A
Skyline of the Sunset (97); Tsumugi (96-98).