not exactly "film fest beat style"

Naguib Razak naj
Thu Nov 16 02:40:15 EST 2000


sorry, that was meant to be a personal reply to Fujioka Asako ... bad habits
die hard ...

anyone going to International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam by chance?

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]On Behalf Of Naguib
Razak
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 3:01 PM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: RE: not exactly "film fest beat style"


Hi there ...

will you be attending the IDFA 2000?

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]On Behalf Of Fujioka
Asako
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2000 4:14 PM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: not exactly "film fest beat style"


In response to the inquiry about "Takeshi's proposed new film festival"...

TOKYO FILMeX 2000 is indeed happening, December 16-24, 2000 in Ginza, Tokyo.
It's headed by the former director of the Cinema Prism program at Tokyo
International Film Festival, Ichiyama Shozo. Incidentally, he's also the
Japanese producer of Hou Hsiao Hsien's later works, Jia Zhanke's new film
*Platform*, Samira Makhmalbaf's *Blackboards*, with other works by young
Asian filmmakers in the making. He's probably the only
internationally-minded and connected independent producer in Japan at the
moment.

The festival will feature around 25 films altogether, with an international
competition of emerging Asian filmmakers and special screenings of new and
old independent films from around the world. All the filmmakers will be
invited and many talk events are scheduled. Major sponsors are Johnnie (Keep
Walkin') Walker, Asahi Shimbun and J-Wave.

Office Kitano is indeed fully backing up the project, but Kitano Takeshi
remains in the background. This is not a publicity stint for BROTHER, (which
will not be screened), or Kitano himself.

Entries have already been closed for this year, but the festival will
continue annually for at least five years. For details, you can contact
info at filmex.net
or look into www.filmex.net  and www.t-mark.net. (Japanese only, but what a
great site for Asian film lovers).

The lineup will be announced Oct 20 on the filmex site, and you can pick up
flyers during the TIFF which starts Oct. 28.

Fujioka Asako
Program coordinator, TOKYO FILMeX 2000
***********
For those who know me, I do still work with Yamagata Doc Fest and will be
coordinating New Asian Currents again next year. This is a in-between year,
and I'm working with Ichiyama and TOKYO FILMeX simply because it's a good
idea!

There are so many film festivals in Japan now, people may wonder why another
new one? In my opinion, neither TIFF (now that Ichiyama's left) nor Focus on
Asia Fukuoka Film Festival (headed by Sato Tadao) has Ichiyama's clear
vision for creative filmmaking in contemporary Asia. Pia Film Festival and
Araki Keiko have in the recent years done a great job in bringing some
independent Asian works ("non-official Chinese films" etc) to Japan, but
their emphasis is of course on the young Japanese filmmakers' competition
and does not pretend to be an international festival. Mr Sato does not
travel to the major international festivals of the world to discover Asian
films, and though his Fukuoka festival has done groundbreaking work, I think
times are changing for independent films.

So, if you're planning to travel to Japan for TIFF, think twice! Or come
twice! All Asia Competition films will be screened with English and Japanese
subtitles.

Asako







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