SHIBUYA SHIDAX, SPACE O: DAY 1 06/13 REPORT – GUESTS FOR ALL 4 SCREENINGS!!

HI EVERYBODY!
So we’ve moved on down the street from Omotesando Hills, Space O to Shidax Culture Hall in Shibuya from today through Sunday. With most of the invited filmmakers arriving yesterday & today, most screenings here & at Laforet will have post-screening Q&A’s.

FOR TODAY’S 1ST PROGRAM; Asia International & Japan 10

Director Yusaku Okamoto brought his 2 leading ladies along for his tense, hostage drama “Last Lie.” He told the audience that the short was produced through his production team & was shot in a convenience store in 5 hours on $1,000 budget. Lead actress Kanae Hayashi was praised by the crowd for her portrayal of a convenience store clerk who falls for one of her regular customers & turns into a psychopathic stalker!

Director Li-Ling Hsieh came out from Taipei to represent her powerful & heart-breaking short about 2 sisters. The older sister has to protect her younger handicapped sister from the reality of their mother having committed suicide when they return from school. Li-Ling revealed that she had 1st planned on making a horror film for her graduate thesis film but changed her mind when she started having nightmares as she worked on the script. on the advice of her mother, she decided to write a story about love, deep familial love. By the way, Mom forked out the money to make this short. Thanks Mom!

FOR THE 2ND PROGRAM OF THE DAY; International Program 8

Maria Zinn came halfway around the world from Bolivia to introduce her powerful & hard to watch short “My Son,” about a mother who has to make the most difficult decision in her life for the sake of her son who is suffering from an illness. She told the audience that her work with an NGO in Bolivia working with single mothers was the inspiration for this short which was made possible by the president of the NGO.

Director Ana Garcia, DoP/Producer Sam Travis, & 1st AD Pablo Perez all came out from the UK to talk about their wickedly funny “Eat Your Principles.” The had the audience laughing when they explained that they shot the film in Sam’s hometown & neighborhood over 6 days which is a luxury in short filmmaking. But they had that much time because they had all just graduated from film school & they were able enlist their classmates to help because they all had nothing else to do!

3RD PROGRAM WITH LOTS OF GUESTS!; For Asia International & Japan 6

We had 3 sets of guests for the post-screening Q/A!
Director Moore Thit Sett Htoon came from Myanmar to talk about his documentary “NON FOSSILS.” He revealed that he had worked with the single mother when they worked together at an NPO for women’s rights & he found that out that she was very active in furthering the cause for women in Myanmar while working as a single mother. He put out all the money himself to make this film over the course of 45 days shooting & 3 months total in production!

For the black comedy “NOVELA PICARESCA,” about 3 misfits who decide that a bus hi-jacking would make them “bad people,” something they strived for after realizing that it was more fun to be bad, director Kenji Qurata returned after his Audience Award winning short “Everytime We Say Goodbye” in 2016. He brought along his 2 leads, So Hirosawa & Yuki Takashi who revealed that they were brought on by Kenji at the very start to work with the director in all aspects of the film including the script!

Lastly, for the special short film “HOTEL HERMITAGE,” actor & leader of the collaborative & highly creative “TEAM HERMITAGE,” Kato Masaya rough his leading lady Naoko Iijima to the screening. This highly stylized short about a man who cannot see & a call girl who cannot speak was beautifully shot & edited by another member of the team, Jeremy Rubie. Masaya revealed that he wanted to put together an artist’s group to make collaborative short films to break boundaries & “normal” story-telling methods to create a whole new short film style. Well, if this 1st effort is any indication, I hope that we can look forward to more creations in the near future.

RUSSIA IS REPRESENTED FOR THE 4TH & FINAL SCREENING OF THE DAY! CG ANIMATION PROGRAM 1

Producer Svetlana Guslove came to represent director Zhanna Bekmambetova’s colorful & tweet CG animation short about a tweet little bird & it’s tightrope along a clothesline with many obstacles & happenings, oh, the title is “Tweet Tweet.” This was director Zhanna’s debut film & it took her over 1 year to complete the absolutely visually stunning film while working at an animation studio. Bravo!

A truly good day of screenings!
So we’ll be here at Shidax & at Laforet in Harajuku for Week 2 of screenings from today through Sunday, 06/17.

SEE YA!

DJ JOHN