Filming in Japan

[A.M. Nornes]

Sven asked about how to find money to do a doc in Japan. The answer is, you
bring your own money (in most cases). Japan Foundation does have some money,
and there might be more. Look at the credits of some films about Japan by
foreigners and you'll have your answer.

As for Japanese documentarists, you could simplify the funding situation
into three approaches:

1) aimed at/funded by Japanese television, which decides what the doc will
look like.
2) ultra-low budget work in video or small format film, which allows artists
freedom of approach (and usually means a very personal kind of film).
3) connected to political movements, and thus money comes from canvasing
donations, labor unions, institutions allied to the cause, etc.

There are very, very few grants for Japanese filmmakers to rely on, so
foreigners can basically forget about it unless they are working for an
outfit that produces docs (like Siglo or Pandora, both of which fit in #3).


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