[KineJapan] Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival

Tue Mar 20 01:20:27 EDT 2018

Hi All,

I just wanted to provide some impression from this year's Yubari
International Fantastic Film Festival, which I returned from last night.

Yubari is one of the thee most interesting festivals in Japan (my opinion),
and all of them begin with 'Y': Yubari, Yufuin, and Yamagata. More than
even many of the other festivals in Japan, Yubari is in a dire financial
situation. The city filed for bankruptcy in 2007, and Yubari is (according
to The Guardian) the town with the highest average population age in Japan
- and that's saying something. And yet the festival goes on, running on
pure enthusiasm - there are few festivals with such a low average age of
the directors and staff, and it remains one of the epicenters of Jishu-film.

The energy of the filmmakers was, as always, amazing. Every night is full
of hours of high-octane film discussion - there is really no other film
festival I know with that kind of energy. At the same time it's clearly a
very gendered festival- as even a brief look at the list of directors will
tell you. Actress and director Hotaru was on the jury last year and broke
into tears at the closing ceremony, saying she wished the festival were a
bit more open to female filmmakers (and a bit less embracing of a male
adolescent perspective in the films' sensibilities).

The support the town itself and the people of Yubari give the festival is
stunning every time- as the buses with guests and film staff roll into town
people line the streets waving and calling  greetings (in the middle of the
Hokkaido winter- and the average age is probably around 70). People
actually turn out to watch all the weird, provocative stuff that Yubari is
famous for, organize nighttime stove parties with deer and bear meat they
hunted themselves and cook soup for the receptions.

It was a real honor to be on the Off Theater Competition Jury with head of
the jury Zeze Takahisa, director Irie Yu (8000 Miles / Saitama no Rappa),
actress Takiuchi Kimi (Side Job, director Hiroki Ryuichi), and Puchon Film
Festival Programmer Kim Bongseok. The International Short Film Competition
jurors were director Omori Tatsushi, animation director Ishiguro Kyohei,
and animation director Hara Toshiko.

The winners in the Off-Theater competition were:
Grand Prix: ED (Nishiguchi Hikaru)
Jury Special Award: Night of the Dead Geisha ((温泉しかばね芸者, Naruse Kiyoto)
Governor of Hokkaido Prize: Cyclops (キュクロプス, Oba Norichika)
Cinegar Award: Cyclops (キュクロプス, Oba Norichika)

And the winners in the International Short Film Competition:
Grand Prix: Pan （ぱん。、Tsuji Nagiko and Sakamoto Yuugo)
There are a number of other prizes you can check out on the Yubari website.

My three takeaways from Yubari this year:
1) I wish there were more female directors in the Off Theater Competition
2) Kansai is going strong- the winners of the Grand Prize and the Jury's
Special Award are both from Osaka University of the Arts
3) Tsuji Nagiko is one to watch out for, and destined for great things. She
acted in several of the films in the competition, Night of the Dead Geisha
among them, and co-directed (and scripted) Pan. And she stole every scene
she was in. I originally met her through her involvement with Planet
Studyo+1 and the CO2 Film Festival- she's very young, but she's everywhere
at the moment, and exploding with talent.

There was a kind of counter-festival running at the same time as Yubari -
in Yubari itself, even. Director and special-effects expert Nishimura Yoshihiro
(a jury member in 2015) organized the 叛逆映画祭 or Resistance/Revolt Film
Festival to counter what he felt was Yubari itself losing its edge in
recent years.

There is a lot more to say about Yubari, but that's it for now-

Alex

Alexander Zahlten

Dept. of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

Harvard University
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