SSFF & ASIA special program screened at Kaohsiung Film Festival in Taiwan!
Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA) presented 7 Japanese short films at Kaohsiung Film Festival, which just closed last week.
<Screened Films>
Pay Phone / Farewell Galaxy / Fill and Moo / the Fire Celebration at Kurama / COCKROACH / Small island beauty salon / Shakespeare in Tokyo
Hiroshi Murakami (director of “Farewell Galaxy”), Takashi Okado and Jon Cox (producer and cinematographer of “COCKROACH”) participated in the Q&A after the screening. Director Murakami talked about the story behind the 10 year-production process of “Farewell Galaxy,” and the audience asked about the obstacles and difficulties he had faced during the production. Producer Okado also shared some episodes from the shooting. They chose a cockroach as the topic of their short film as they wanted to make a comedy which not only Japanese audiences can enjoy, but also international audiences. (But they found out that people from cold areas do not have the same negative image of cockroaches as those living in hot areas!)
In addition to the SSFF & ASIA special program, “Utamonogatari” had its international premiere in the same week at the festival. Staff of SSFF & ASIA participated in the Q&A after the screening and talked about the Cinema Fighters Project – a production project of short films inspired by the music of LDH artists.
The staff members also participated as guest speakers in the workshops, and talked about the competition between international film festivals and film productions, and found that the audience and young filmmakers are very eager to learn about short film productions and the Japanese film industry.
The award ceremony was held on October 27th and the Polish short film “Tremors” directed by Dawid Bodzak was selected for the Best Short Award!