American Short Shorts Film Festival 2000

Keiko ibi	Michael Goetz	Greg Pak	Mark Osborne	Roy Unger
Jim Fleigner	Jochen Schliessler	Charlie Call	Erisabeth Lohen	Grant Barbeito
Keith Milton	Christine Swanson	Mitchel Rose	Chris Harwood	Bruce Laffey
Michael Cargile	Joan Raspo

Keiko Ibi's interest in entertainment began in grade school, where she was already directing and writing plays. After she was crowned Miss Japan at age 19, she took acting and singing lessons and played a small part in a musical. She left the stage to study screen writing and eventually moved to the United States as a graduate student. Keiko's decision to move to the United States was motivated not only by her long held desire to live there but also by her belief that she would have to work for at least ten years as an assistant director in the States before she would ever be able to direct a film in Japan.
Keiko made "The Personals" as a graduate student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She met the stars of her documentary, a group of aging Jewish Americans who belong to a drama club, at a party. Their drama coach had taught at NYU, where Keiko was studying. Keiko was immediately impressed by their vitality, and a week later she bought a video camera and started taping them. The members of the drama club soon accepted their new friend Keiko, and even when she wasn't working on the film she sometimes joined them for dinner and they invited her to their dance lessons.
Keiko's next project is also a documentary about a group of performers. This time, though, they are cheerleaders from Texas. When she finishes this film, Keiko would like to make a feature-length fiction film.
Lastly, Keiko offers advice for women who are eager to become directors. "Keep on doing what you really want to do. It shouldn't just be something that you do only in your spare time. Just try it; it's okay even if you do not succeed. Just have faith and try it!"

At 27, Michael Goetz is the youngest of all the visiting filmmakers, but his film, "Mass Transit," is a very serious work with an important social message. The idea for the film occurred to Mike when he lived in New York City. Riding the subway, he would watch the other passengers and he was always surprised by how different everyone was. One day he saw some people on the train bump into each other and fall down. Then he came up with the story for his film. Through the film, he wants to appeal to the audience that society's chain of violence can be broken.
Mike made the film when he was a graduate student at the University of Southern California's School of Cinema Television. He shot it over 5 nights because everyone involved had day jobs. The $10,000 it cost him to make the film is small by Hollywood's standards, but not by Mike's. He attributes much of the film's price tag to the expense of renting camera equipment. He hopes to get a D.V. for his next film.

"I don't know if Japanese audiences will fully understand the humor of 'Po Mo Knock Knock' because it's really an American joke," says Greg. "But even in America only about 2 out of 10 people appreciate it, and the other 8 don't respond at all." In this film, two poker-faced men tell "knock knock" jokes over and over. In creating this surrealistic, avant-garde picture, Greg was influenced by "Persona," a film which began the classical movement in the movie industry in the beginning of 1960's .
Greg won a Student Academy Award for a documentary film he shot about his grandparents, and he's gone on to produce all kinds of films. He is currently working on a documentary, and at the same time, he is making every effort to raise funds for his first feature film.

Despite its complete lack of words, "More" sharply portrays a suppressing modern society through fantastic clay-animation. "Two years ago I was listening to the music by the English band New Order that I used in my film," says Mark. "That's when I first started thinking about the idea for the film. The music contains monotonously repeated melodies of synthesizers and also some dramatic melodies. After I listened to the music, two contrasting images welled up in my mind--the cityscape with lots of buildings and factories and the merry-go-round." Mark says that "More" is part two of a trilogy. " 'More' is gloomy, but don't worry, the third one will be optimistic."
Mark has lived in New York and Los Angeles since he started his filmmaking career, but he grew up in the countryside in Vermont. "I see urban life as very suppressing by contrast with my childhood. I started questioning city-life especially after the birth of my daughter recently."

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