News & Reports

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA) 2023” , one of the largest international short film festivals in Asia, accredited by the Academy Awards, collaborates with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) to create a form of coexistence of scientific and technological innovation and the ideal of a humane life.

Produced the short film, “NEO PORTRAITS,” a collaborative project with creators and audiences around the world. Today, May 10th (Wednesday), the world premiere will be on the SSFF & ASIA YouTube channel.

URL:https://shortshorts.org/ntt/en/

This project grew out of the SSFF & ASIA 2022 Online Closing Seminar NTT presents International Conference for visualizing our future brought about by technological innovation feat. IOWN.

“IOWN” is regarded by many companies, including NTT, as a technology with the potential to change the game in realizing new smart societies. A panel of experts gathered from various fields, including the Natural Society Lab, which considers people’s lives, the executive producer of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, a professor of the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo, and overseas directors who have won the Grand Prix and other awards at SSFF & ASIA.

At the conference, we discussed how to realize a coexistence between the development of science and technology and the ideal of a humane life as visual images. When the emergence of human clones and the birth of eternal life are realized through technological innovation, will human society become a utopia? New technologies require new philosophies, thinking of not only　”Self-as-I” and “You,” but the idea of perceiving the whole related to “Self-as-We.”  Short film pitchings were solicited from film makers around the world, and from the large number of applications, a draft “What a Wonderful World” written by qurata kenji（KURUWA.LLC）was selected and made into the short film, “NEO PORTRAITS” (Director/Screenplay/Editor: GAZEBO).

『NEO PORTRAITS』

Directed / Witten / Edited by GAZEBO／SF Drama／19:51/2023
Draft “What a Wonderful World” Written by qurata kenji（KURUWA.LLC）　

Story

A story of rural Japan in the near future.

“Cutting-edge technology” and “things that haven’t changed” coexist in this depopulated town.   Takumi, an eighth-year junior high school student, felt it strange that the adults in his town treated the android made in his mother’s image as the real thing.  

However, only Hana, his homeroom teacher, was different from the other adults.

Review from Koji Fukada

　As with Hugo Gernsback’s “Ralph 124C41+,” an artist’s fantasies often foresee the future and act as invisible hands to direct people into a new society. “NEO PORTRAITS,” which gives us a vivid glimpse of life in the future through simple ideas, also gives a gentle push though our hands are confused and tremble with anxiety. It seemed to me that the trembling is the essence of this form of expression.　　

『NEO PORTRAITS』 Profiles of Director and Casts

Konosuke Harada

Born February 2, 2010, Tokyo.
Film: 2022 “SABAKAN” Director Tomoki Kanazawa (movie debut, Kenji Takemoto role)
TV: March 9, 2022 Drama “PICU” (Sakuta Noguchi role, Fuji TV)

Yo Osamu

Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1995. After entering Waseda University, she joined the theater group. After graduating, she gained experience mainly in small theaters, and appeared in plays by notable theater companies such as Gekidan Kenshin and iaku.
In recent years, she has been steadily expanding her range of work in the film & TV industry..

Director：ＧＡＺＥＢＯ

Born 1978, in Gotemba City, Shizuoka                                                                                                   
After working as an assistant director, art painting staff, and in production, he is now directing movies, commercials, and music videos.
My favorite things are Eiichi Otaki, Fujio Fujiko, late-night anime, and late-night radio.                     
As director:
Short film “Vtuber Nagisa” (NETGEAR Japan)
In addition to being selected as a recommended work by the Jury Committee of the Entertainment Division of the Agency for Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival, has won 16 awards, including the Grand Prix, at domestic film festivals.                                                         
Awards: Short film “AIM” (NETGEAR Japan)
In addition to winning the SSFF & ASIA2022 Branded Shorts of the Year (National Division), 16 awards including 4 Grand Prix at domestic and international film festivals.
The short film “BEFORE/AFTER”
In addition to being released in theaters nationwide as part of MIRRORLIAR FILMS, it won four awards at domestic film festivals.

★About IOWN Concept：

Innovative technology centered on light in order to create a prosperous society that accepts diversity by optimizing the individual and the whole based on all kinds of information.
This information includes terminals that can provide high-speed, large-capacity communication that exceeds the limits of existing infrastructure and computational resources.