![\"DSC_4745\"](\"http:\/\/ssff.sakura.ne.jp\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/DSC_4745.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe last day of the festival kicked off with \u201cProgram B,\u201d which consists mainly with audience award-winning shorts from \u201cSSFF & ASIA 2015.\u201dAfter the screening, a talk session was held with a guest speaker Mr.Zenbo Hidaka, hosted by the festival director Seigo Tono. Mr. Hidaka is a Buddha priest from Koya-san, home to an active monastic center founded twelve centuries ago by the priest Kukai (posthumously known as Kobo Daishi) for the study and practice of Esoteric Buddhism, situated on a small plain at the top of Mount Koya. A Tokyo University law graduate, Mr. Hidaka was working in a multi-media related company before becoming the Buddhist priest. He discussed about the role of short films as a part of multi-media studies, as well as the importance of \u201csharing the moment\u201d with live audience which is becoming less practiced as people of today tend to spend more time alone with their computer and smartphones. When Mr.Hidaka noted tht one of the shorts was funded with \u201cKickstarter,\u201d he said, \u201cActually, Kukai did the same thing 1200 years ago in Koyasan, when he tried to open the monastic center there. Kukai explained the importance of the center to the local people who lived there, and with their support, he go to make the center.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Next up was\u201cGerman Special Feature\u201d program, hosted by the festival and Goethe-Institut Osaka, with shorts by award-winning directors including this year\u2019s Student Academy Award winner in the \u201cForeign Film\u201d category. After the screening, Ilker Catak, director of \u201cSadakat\u201d which won the Student Academy Award, came up on the stage. He introduced himself first saying that he just arrived in Osaka last night, and that he is already enchanted with Japan. Regarding the film \u201cSadakat,\u201dwhich is about a nurse in Istanbul whose family is jeopardized in a police investigation after she hid one of the demonstrators in a hospital room who was the target of police pursuit. Director Catak said, \u201cMy grand-parents came to Germany from Turkey in the 60\u2019s, and I am half German and Turkish. I grew up in two different cultures and I know them both. I wanted to make this film when I learned a couple of years ago about young people who demonstrated before the Turkish government for their right of free speech.\u201d He also talked about his other film in the program called \u201cAlte Schule\u201d a comedy about a pickpocket man who becomes in love with his female victim. \u201cThe two films of mine are very different to each other. This one is a bit of a romantic comedy. I don\u2019t want to make same kind of films each time. I think a film director should be able to make different films,\u201ddirector Catak said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The third program of the day was \u201cFocus on UK.\u201d The program included a broad selection of films spanning documentary, animation, drama and other genres with a special feature short “Hollywood Portfolio,” created for the magazine “Vanity Fair.” The film stars 44 British actors and actresses representing the UK, such as Eddie Redmayne, an Academy Awards\u00ae winner this year, and Benedict Cumberbatch. After the screening, a talk session was held with Director Yoshimasa Ishibashi, whose credits include such short comedy series \u201cOh, Mikey!\u201d and a feature film \u201cMilocrorze\u201d starring the famous and popular Japanese actor Takayuki Yamada. Director Ishibashi thanked first our committee by saying, \u201cAt the very early stage of the festival, maybe about 15 years ago, when Mr. Bessho founded this festival, I was invited to talk with him during a festival event. Since then, I am happy to see the festival grow, and you still invite me to the festival, so I\u2019m very thankful.\u201d When he was asked about his impression of the \u201cFocus on UK\u201d program, he said, \u201cThe second film of the program, \u201cOn Loop\u201d was made in Royal College of Arts (RCA) in London. When I was young, I was an exchange student at RCA. I remember listening to a lecture hosted by Terry Gilliam. But what I remember the most was the passion towards visual arts I shared with friends at school.\u201d Audience members laughed when he said, \u201cAlthough I had to fund my own feature film, I could get by all these years because simply, I love what I do. I realized that a couple of years ago!\u201d He also explained about how he now focuses his interest in stage directing. Ishibashi said, \u201cPeople nowadays watch visual contents on their smartphones alone. I wanted to make something that people can share \u201clively\u201d, and I think watching actors perform on stage is very important.\u201d Curiously, Ishibashi\u2019s comment is the same as the one of our earlier guest of today, Mr. Zenbo Hidaka, the Buddhist priest from Koya-san.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n