Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2010

Joe leaves Tokyo for the first time in 10 years to take a trip acrosss Japan. He visits throuthout Japan, Wakkanai, Biwako, and Okinawa. The people he meets along the way, the food and culture, and the trip all help Joe to develop inner strength as a young man.

Director : Ken OchiaiI would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Short Shorts Film Festival staff, the volunteers, the jury, & to the Japan Travel Agency. I am honored to have been chosen for this award from among the many, very fine films.

This short film features "Joe" who is one of the characters that appears in the feature film "Summer 47" which was slated for production last year. It's been 7 years since I left for the U.S. to learn filmmaking. One thing I realized once I was away from Japan was that, even as someone from Japan, there was still a lot that I really didn’t know about Japan. Since then I developed an interest in the history of my native country and I would go to places that I hadn’t been to & I would take pictures & make notes of ideas. Those notes eventually became a script & the script eventually became a short film.

I used the prize money & the Canon Mark II 5D camera that I received when I was awarded the Best Short Award in the Japan Competition at last year’s festival. I took over 16,000 stills & 8 hours of moving images which was then condensed into a 15 minute short film. I' m very pleased that the award I received last year led to creating a new short film that enabled me to return to this wonderful film festival. I was the "frog in the well" before I left Japan, in addition to discovering how big & wide the world is, I also came to realize the beauty of the “well” in which I lived. Through this film, if people from around the world see the beauty of Japan, and becomes interested and if people here in Japan sees a place they haven’t been to & decide to take a trip there, that would be my greatest wish. Since this is a story based on the experiences of my family, my personal feelings for this film are very strong, and the enormous happiness I feel in receiving this recognition for it is something that is hard to express I words.

Thank you very, very much.

Naomi is cautious when a mysterious old woman asks her to deliver something. As she makes the delivery, Naomi sees a little girl running away from her mother. Naomi chases after the girl only to be consumed by long forgotten memories. What waits at the end transcends time and space?

Director : Kazuhiko Kondo

Black Sheep spirit – a very simple tale. There was once a very pretty town. The 2 black sheep walked the town for 2 days & were wandering thoughtlessly along a river-walk. One black sheep said to the other "Well…." The other replied "First…."

"Well, what’s the vest way to depict this town?" "First, let’s have some drinks." Just that. Just that was all it took to begin, that’s all it is, a simple tale. "But…"
A beautiful lady who makes delicious Italian food everyday puts on her make-up, an apprentice fashion designer makes a pretty one-piece dress for her.
A woman with black hair who writes elegant prose took on the task of asst. director and eventually rose to the position of asst. producer. An artist with blond hair & sunglasses participated as the art director and provided his precious car. The old man @ the lunch box shop wrote onto the wrapping paper, "please make a good film." Ton-chan, who likes to roam, gave us a beautiful contra-bass & accordion melody called "Mama! Milk." Sato-san…, Sato-san provided the black sheep a place to stay. And everyone in Kita-Kyushu would give us a smile & applaud after each cut. Many, many people cooperated & supported the “just that” of these haphazard & wild black sheep. "That's how…" That's how this film was created. We give big thanks! THANK YOU! Truly! The black sheep didn’t have anything to offer in return. But receiving this award is perhaps an even bigger way of expressing our gratitude to all those who helped. We also give big thanks to the SSFF staff. The festival provided us with a wonderful opportunity. Thank you very much. Finally, a quick word about the film.

A very simple story, "past, present, and future, all intersect at the sanctuary that is Kita-Kyushu. This motif is entrusted to 1 woman and we depicted the positive & negative sides that we all hold deep inside. An old woman (the future) is entrusted with the answer to a regretful incident during the childhood (the past) of the woman (the present) in a very positive manner. And the men, dressed in black, who say in the Ogura dialect, “that's not possible," they are also a part of the woman. They represent the negative side of a struggling self. Everyday, this continuous back & forth between the positive & negative sides is what makes life fun. "Well…," "but…," "first…," is re-cycled over & over. To live each day is the simple story of that cycle. Well, but, first, that’s why… That’s happiness. No guts, no glory, go for it!!

Since 1989, the Kitakyushu Film Commission implemented programs to actively promote the image of Kitakyushu and brought many TV and movie productions to the city. Kazuhiko Kondo, the assistant director for the "UMizaru" series, was invited as a director.