American Expat in Japan Needed for Documentary Film

[Andrew Grant]

Greetings all from Berlin --

I'm posting this for a friend who is looking to find a subject for a
documentary film that deals with foreigners attempting to get a drivers
license in their new country of residence. A somewhat strange subject, I
agree, but perhaps it could make for an interesting study.

If interested, or if you know anybody who might be a potential candidate,
please write my friend Veronika at drivingdoc at googlemail.com

Details follow:

*LOOKING FOR A PROTAGONST FOR A DOCUMENTARY FILM***



We are a Berlin based production company looking for a protagonist based in
Tokyo for a feature documentary film AND WHO TAUGHT YOU TO DRIVE? directed
by young and talented German filmmakers Andrea Thiele and Lia Jaspers.



The subject is a humorous look on globalization and how different people in
different countries try to adapt to another culture. The film deals with
foreigners who are forced to take their driving test again because their
national driving license is not valid in their new country of residence. It
will be shot in three different countries: In Japan/Tokyo, in Germany/Munich
and in India/Mumbai. In Tokyo we will follow an American expat, in Mumbai a
German and a woman from South Korea in Munich. They all have in common that
they are in need of a driving license in order to work and establish
themselves in their new countries.



Sharing a road just like sharing our life with people of different
backgrounds requires tolerance and mental flexibility. Easier said than
done. This film is about accepting cultural differences. It is a celebration
of diversity of cultures and their underlying structure, rhythm and values.
The film connects all our protagonists through the driving lessons that they
have to take. We will follow each character also in their everyday lives as
we want to document their individual steps towards fitting into a completely
new society. This means the driving school is only a part in the film, but
an important one.



We will start shooting the project this autumn. We would like to follow the
overall steps it takes to get a license, filming our protagonist taking the
lessons with a driving instructor.




*OUR PROTAGONIST SHOULD***

-      be relatively new in Japan, but with the plan to live there for some
time (we are not looking for tourists)
-      be US-American
-      be available this autumn for shooting (no other major job
obligations) and have time to meet us when we come for  research in
September
-      either just started taking driving lessons or is eager to get a
Japanese licence out of personal or professional reasons as part of the
documentary deals with traffic in Tokyo.
-      be open to be filmed in their everyday life.

The driving lessons will be of course paid for as well as an appropriate
remuneration for the “job”.

Here you can check out our production company in Berlin: www.kloosundco.de
A direct link to the project is
http://www.kloosundco.de/en/production/film/WTY.html


-- 
Andrew Grant
President, Benten Films
www.bentenfilms.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20110719/f514c71d/attachment.html