[KineJapan] Sion Sono invited to Poland

Sat Sep 23 01:14:37 EDT 2023

Further developments around this Polish festival that invited Sono:
A third Japanese act that was scheduled to appear, the band Kukangendai, 
is no longer listed as a guest on the festival's website.

Also gone are the names and logos of Bunkacho and the Toshiba 
International Foundation, which had been listed as sponsors until 
recently. This blows a hole in a previous statement made by the festival 
in defense of inviting Sono, which was that his appearance was organised 
with public funding.

Sadly, listed among the festival's media partners is the website Asian 
Movie Pulse, which less than two weeks ago ran a publicity post for the 
festival that includes quotes from Sono but completely ignores any of 
the accusations against him:
https://asianmoviepulse.com/2023/09/inlandimensions-international-arts-festival-unveils-2023-programme/

I’d add to Markus's words that the festival’s invitation to Sono is more 
than unfortunate - it’s downright callous. Around the time the festival 
first announced this, its organizer was posting drunk photos of himself 
with Sono on Facebook. Looking at the festival website, under “Team”, 
the only person listed is this organizer.

A follow-up article with accusation against Sono was published in April 
this year, in another tabloid weekly, 
Flash:https://smart-flash.jp/entame/232420/1/1/
This garnered no attention outside Japan, and I don't believe it was 
mentioned on Kinejapan, but it notes that not only have there been 
multiple victims and accusations, but that Sono’s behaviour was a 
conscious pattern.

Tom

On 22-09-23 14:32, Tom Mes via KineJapan wrote:
> Two other Japanese acts have withdrawn from the Polish festival that 
> invited Sono:
> https://twitter.com/coppelianne/status/1704668526697746598?t=XZD3yYC2uW1VfKcv-9HhQQ&s=19 
>
> https://twitter.com/charanporantan/status/1704498223065244090?t=sBIQYlVCgtCJ_ayJP6zBFA&s=19 
>
>
> Tom
>
> On 22-09-23 08:55, Markus Nornes via KineJapan wrote:
>> Yamagata starts in a couple weeks. As always, the focus is on 
>> everything but the market. No pitching sessions. But there is a 
>> brilliant gathering being organized by /riji/ Fujioka Asako and 
>> friends. I'm impressed by their strategy, which is roundabout and 
>> careful. Description from their anketto page, with schedule, is below.
>>
>> Markus
>>
>>
>> 近年、日本のドキュメンタリー映画制作の現場で発生した、性加害を含む数々の問題が明るみに出てきました。 
>>
>>
>> いかなる暴力も差別も許されないという思いがある一方で、ドキュメンタリー映画の作り手としては、自分たち自身も無自覚なままに加害側になる可能性について考えないわけにはいきません。悪意はなくとも、より良い作品を完成させようとするあまり、被写体や関係者を傷つけてしまった経験は誰にもあるのではないでしょうか。 
>>
>>
>> 制作現場での倫理が厳しく問われている今、誰にとっても安全な環境の下で作品を生み出していくために、まずは小さな一歩として、制作者たちがこれまでに現場で経験した「ヒヤリハット事例」を共有する場を有志でヤマガタ（山形国際ドキュメンタリー映画祭2023期間中）に設けることにしました。 
>>
>>
>> 具体的には、監督、プロデューサー、スタッフなど、ドキュメンタリー制作に関わる立場の方達に「制作現場でのヒヤリハット事例（ヒヤリとしたり、ハッとした、重大な問題につながりかねなかった経験）」を事前に募集し、その中のいくつかを小さな会場で共有しながら話し合うイベントを開きます。 
>>
>>
>> 会場で共有された事例と関連する議論は、共有してくださった方や発言された方の確認・同意が取れたものについてのみ、後日、文章として広く共有できたらと考えています。 
>>
>>
>> 誰かを断罪したり糾弾する場ではなく、お互いに牽制しジャッジし合う場でもなく、なかなか共有される場がなかった個々の知を、コミュニティでの共有知へ開くことで、互いに学び合い、それぞれの安全な制作に活かしていく「ヒント」が得られる場にできたらと思っています。 
>>
>>
>>
>> ドキュメンタリー映画制作者有志の会
>>
>> 小田香　川上拓也　島田隆一　戸田ひかる　秦岳志　藤岡朝子
>>
>> （問い合わせ：hiyarihatto.doc at gmail.com 
>> <mailto:hiyarihatto.doc at gmail.com>）
>>
>>
>> *【イベント詳細】*
>>
>> *■イベント名：ドキュメンタリー制作現場でのヒヤリハット事例雑談（入場無料）* 
>>
>>
>> *■日時：2023年10月9日(月・祝)　開場14:00　開会：14:30（16:30終了予定）*
>> *■場所：BOTA theater / BOTA coffee 2F（**山形県山形市七日町2-7-18）*
>> *※BOTA theater 公式HP：https://biennale.tuad.ac.jp/2018/programs/1796 
>> <https://biennale.tuad.ac.jp/2018/programs/1796>*
>> *※定員30人（定員に達した際は、ご入場できない場合がございます。ご了承ください。）** 
>>
>> *
>> *※本イベントは後日、公開可能な部分について文字での記録を公開する予定です。* 
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ---
>> *
>> *
>> *Markus Nornes*
>> *Professor of Asian Cinema*
>>
>>         Department of Film, Television and Media, Department of Asian
>>         Languages and Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art & Design
>>
>>         *_Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/
>>         <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/>
>>         _**Department of Film, Television and Media
>>         **6348 North Quad
>>         **105 S. State Street
>>         **Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 1:39 PM Markus Nornes <nornes at umich.edu 
>> <mailto:nornes at umich.edu>> wrote:
>>
>>     This Polish invitation is, I think, unfortunate. The allegations
>>     against Sono are convincing and multi-sourced. I'm not sure what
>>     the present situation is in the film industry, although Sono's
>>     been pretty quiet as far as I can tell. I know of at least two big
>>     programmers who consciously avoid working with him or his films.
>>     His name inevitably comes up in Metoo discussions on and off stage.
>>
>>     It's not completely true he's been quiet, actually. He is in court
>>     suing /Shukan Josei/ for publishing the allegations. As far as I
>>     can see, the case is still pending.
>>
>>     Suing or threatening to sue is so typical. Sono tried to snuff out
>>     the pre-/Shukan Josei /allegations in social media by threatening
>>     to sue Matsuzaki Yuki. Sono's lawyers sent a scary letter
>>     demanding he take down all social media posts, never utter Sono's
>>     name again, and issue a public apology. Matsuzaki blew through all
>>     the threats, but I imagine other people got such letters as well.
>>
>>     In like manner, this summer's allegations
>>     against critic/programmer/filmmaker/professor Kaneko Yu involved
>>     lawsuits. The original social media posts by actress Mizui Maki
>>     were over a decade old, but Kaneko successfully sued her in court
>>     back then. The details are a bit unclear, but he won a narrow
>>     defamation claim. At the same time, the matter of the power and
>>     sexual harassment seemed to be beyond the court's purview...like I
>>     said, it's unclear. The allegations of power harassment are quite
>>     compelling; the rape allegations will probably remain grey and
>>     undecided because the victim committed suicide last July. Once
>>     again, Matsuzaki threw himself into the mix via social media, and
>>     once again was threatened with a lawsuit. But the heat became
>>     intense enough that Kaneko made a vague admission of "bad
>>     behavior" and promises to "be a better human." He pulled out of
>>     the directorship of Tokyo Documentary Film Festival, ceased his
>>     prolific publishing activities, and resigned from his position at
>>     Tama Art University. This was just as at least one mainstream
>>     media outlet picked up the story—but they dropped everything upon
>>     Kaneko's resignations.
>>
>>     It's striking that this is mainly happening in social media and
>>     /shukanshi/. One wonders if the recent Johnny's reportage will
>>     change much when it comes to public reckonings in the press. The
>>     corruption is so intertwined at every level. But just the threat
>>     of lawsuits is obviously an effective tool of the perps.
>>
>>     This is clear from reading the HW investigation accounts by Ronan
>>     Farrow, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. I suspect some of the
>>     critics on KineJapan have personal experience with gun shy editors
>>     and their lawyers.....
>>
>>     In any case, the Polish invite is too bad, but could be an
>>     opportunity to ask questions that he'd never get asked at a public
>>     forum here.
>>
>>     Or maybe he would, if he appeared in public. Things are changing a
>>     little, I notice.
>>
>>     Harada Masato appeared at FCCJ a few weeks ago (for Badlands,
>>     which was interesting and had a rousing performance by Ando
>>     Sakura). More Johnny's news had just broke, and when it wasn't the
>>     first question from the press conference he started his
>>     answer-of-a-different-question by expressing his surprise, and
>>     then answering the question on sexual harassment he was expecting.
>>
>>     At an Atene Francaise symposium on Vietnamese film, visiting
>>     filmmakers spoke at length about Autumn Meeting
>>     <https://www.facebook.com/autumnmeeting/>, an independent workshop
>>     for young people wanting to break into the film industry. When
>>     they opened the floor for Q and A, a woman asked a question no one
>>     was prepared for: with all these older teachers from the industry
>>     and eager young people, have they had problems with sexual
>>     harassment? It was so cheering and optimistic up to this point, so
>>     the question really threw the stage for a loop. The Vietnamese men
>>     all looked at each other, not knowing what to say. The long female
>>     producer on the panel finally answered......no, not a problem at
>>     all...in fact, they have lots of high school girls, and /strongly
>>     encourage parents to attend with them/. Needless to say, this
>>     answer raised more questions than it answered, but time had run
>>     out so there was no followup. The entire theater seemed surprised
>>     by the question, but it's definitely good to keep the conversation
>>     public. But it'd be nice if there were more aggressive journalism
>>     in the mainstream press.
>>
>>     Markus
>>
>>
>>     ---
>>     *
>>     *
>>     *Markus Nornes*
>>     *Professor of Asian Cinema*
>>
>>             Department of Film, Television and Media, Department of
>>             Asian Languages and Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art &
>>             Design
>>
>>             *_Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/
>>             <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/>
>>             _**Department of Film, Television and Media
>>             **6348 North Quad
>>             **105 S. State Street
>>             **Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>     On Mon, Sep 18, 2023 at 1:38 PM Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano via
>>     KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu
>>     <mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>> wrote:
>>
>>         Hello everyone
>>
>>         Nina, thank you for your timely post. It seems that the
>>         differences in shared perceptions between different
>>         areas/cultures can't be helped. However, what I hope for the
>>         Polish mass media is that they have a sense of ethics to ask
>>         frank questions to the director about the scandals, which
>>         indeed lacks in Japan as we have seen in the case of Johnny's
>>         office.
>>
>>         Best regards,
>>         Mitsuyo
>>
>>         Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, Dr.
>>         Director of Joint Degree Transcultural Studies
>>         Kyoto University
>>         Graduate School of Letters
>>         Yoshida-honmachi Sakyo-ku Kyoto Japan 606-8501
>> https://www.cats.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/jdts/team/academic-staff/mitsuyo-wada-marciano/
>> <https://www.cats.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/jdts/team/academic-staff/mitsuyo-wada-marciano/>
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>>
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