Dim

[Peter Grilli]

Markus,
Thanks for your interesting anecdote about the improvised Yamagata theater,
which I hadn't known about.  It must have been the site of wonderful events
at that 1993 festival!
I was also amused by your note that the green exit signs mysteriously
malfunctioned during the film screenings.
Various friends of mine in Japanese theaters (underground and above-ground)
have shown me their favorite improvised masks or other covers for blocking
those green exit signs whenever they need a really dark auditorium.  (I hope
no one is passing on this correspondence to any local Japanese fire
inspectors.)

All best,
Peter

  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]On Behalf Of Mark Nornes
  Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 8:34 AM
  To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
  Subject: Re: Dim


  Back at the 1993 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival,
Daishima Haruhiko and I built a theater from scratch for a program on First
Nations film and video. We borrowed a parking lot across from the main
theater, and created a theater out of heavy plumbing piping and canvas. It
looked pretty good, with a theater-in-the-round structure around an irori, a
music stage, a battery of every kind of projector, and Ainu kimono and
religious fetishes decorating the walls. Outside, we painted the canvas,
built a tower, and lined the entranceway with yatai. There were two
problems. One was that it got a little cold at night. The other was that the
fire inspectors were incredibly hard on us, so I can tell you with great
certainty that there are strict rules out there about having WELL-LIT fire
exits. It was painful to hang these conventional green fire exit signs next
to our exits. Once the festival was underway, they mysteriously stopped
working.

  At the same time, there were no regulations about keeping lights up. And
if Kyoto has dispensed with lit exit signs, then it suggests that the
regulations are local.

  Markus




  On Wednesday, July 9, 2003, at 03:08 AM, Aaron Gerow wrote:


      Does anyone know why this practice was followed and if there was any
legal
      basis, has it been removed?


    I know there was a legal basis for this in prewar exhibition
regulations.
    For instance, the 1917 Tokyo moving picture regulations stipulated that
    there be enough light so that the faces of the spectators could be
    clearly distinguished. Since these regulations also had provisions
    requiring separate seating for men and women as well as authorizing a
    special seat for a police officer in the back, one can relate this
    regulation to fears about sexuality, the desire to control spectators
    through sight, as well as to a general phobia about what kind of things
    lone spectators were thinking and doing in the dark (light helping
    spectators remember they are members of a public with public
    responsibilities).

    I have not done research in postwar theater regulations, so I too would
    be curious about the requirements in this regard. Many theaters are
    annoyingly well-lit, but there are many which try to darken the theater
    as much as possible.

    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


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