News & Reports

The Craft stories around Japan program presents a very nice collection of at times heartwarming and other times heartwrenching stories.

https://www.shortshorts.org/2024autumn/program/program_cat/craft/

It showcases traditional crafts in the process of being lost, revived, and continued over generations. Some tell a family story while presenting a traditional craft industry – tofu making, aizome indigo dying, fireworks making (Tofu, Deep Blue, Knot), while others are documentaries: Five Colors – Dyeing and Weaving artisan~, Grandpa’s Kata Yuzen, the latter documenting the final job of a kata yuzen dyer,  showing him on his last day at work, followed by his workshop being dismantled for good.

The third person narrator quietly expresses the sadness surrounding these final hours, the end of a career, and the loss of a traditional craft.  

Another highlight, Passing the baton, blends the two stories of the near loss of a long established Fukushima sake brewery on the eve of its 300th anniversary when the Great East Japan earthquake hit, the years following the disaster, and the story of how their sake is made. Appreciate these stories, these films, and through them, the great culture of Japan.

Craft Stories round Japan program is available at SSFF & ASIA 2024 Grand Online Theater till Nov. 7. 2024.

https://app.lifelogbox.com/shortshortsonlinegrandtheater

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＜Writer＞

Laura MacGregor is on faculty at Gakushuin University. Among the courses she teaches is one on film and the economy. She has been in Japan for a long time, and has been watching and studying about films and the film industry since the 1990s. SSFF & ASIA is one of her favourite film festivals in Japan so she is glad to participate this year as a volunteer translator and reviewer.