Message from the Co-directors on UPAF2011 poster:
“We are not a regular film festival. We want to share the powerful films made by our fellow filmmakers in the world that could change all of our lives.
Japan is just hanging in there this year. This year, our mini-themes are Nuclear and Us, young people, our cities and towns, and power of film, all supported by our underlying theme of “life, art, film.”
This year was a sad sad year. Our mini-themes were originally “towns and cities” and “power of film,” but after the 3.11. Fukushima disaster, we gradually started wanting to create a space where people can express and talk about the doubts and fears that every Japanese person carries in post-Fukushima Japan. Thus we decided to add “Nuclear and Us” as one of our mini-themes. The result is the screenings of: “Into the Eternity,” a documentary film about the Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository in Finland: “Hibakusha and I,” a documentary in which a young Japanese filmmaker questions about how he should pass on the memories of hibakusha, the victims of A-bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki: and “Black Rain,” a Shohei Imamura’s drama that tried to recreate the fear of A-bomb and its aftermath. There will be extended time allotted to the post-film talk after the outdoor screening of “Into the Eternity” with special guest Takashi Asai from Shibuya Uplink, the film’s distributor.
UPAF 2011 also will include: a documentary about a rap duo born and living in a cell of Rio’s notorious prison, a documentary-drama fusion dealing with the massive migration of workers in China and the resulting loss of family bond (both are by female directors!); a rare, groovy, and magical drama of an African-Canadian family in Canada, a self-documentary by a young Japanese filmmaker tackling her own issues of being a victim of sexual assault within her own family; strong films made by teen filmmakers in the world (free!), etc. Also, to cheer up the sensitive minds of little children in post-3.11. Japan, we will also screen the French classics, “Red Balloon” and “White Mane,” with a special live voiceover performance by volunteer actors.
Synopsis NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY is an urban love story about the soul of a mother, the heart of a fighter, and the faith of a child. JUDE is a single mother who descends from a long line of Jamaican caregivers. SILENCE is a ‘past his prime’ boxer who fights illegally to survive. CIEL is a boy who delves into music, conjuring dreams for his mother. During the last week of summer, a late-night [Read more...]
Red Balloon & White Mane Albert Lamorisse’s films talk directly to our hearts with beautiful pictures and little words. Behind the simplest stories, these post-WWII films (featuring the director’s own son Pascal and stunning Alain Emery) contain the director’s complex feelings about the war, good vs evil, and the future that the post-war children had to rebuild. In 2011, the hardest [Read more...]
Necropolis Dir. Craig Scheihing, Zack Auron, David Fieman, Jacob Shanks Kindlon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 9’43”, 2009 Action! Adventure! Romance! ZOMBIES! A sad love story featuring zombies. Zombies have their own world in which they have their favorite foods and fall in love. But their world is shattered… Dir. Bio: Craig [Read more...]
"Hibakusha & My Journey" Dir. Takashi Kunimoto, 64 min, color, 2008 Synopsis "In his documentary film 'Traveling with Hibakusha: Across Generations,' Takashi Kunimoto focuses on the 'younger A-bomb survivors' who experienced the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when they were babies or small children and so don't hold clear memories of their ordeal. The film is a record of a [Read more...]
UPAF 2011 Film #4 (Youth Program): "My Anthem" by MC NAM, 2010, Video. 4.5min. It is a music video for a song by a Vietnamese rapper MC NAM from Kobe, Japan. It is a cry of his soul about what it means to grow up as a Vietnamese in Japan, unknown facts of how his grandparents came to Japan... Shot on location in Nagata where he grew up. Camera by another Vietnamese high schooler in Japan. Edited [Read more...]
Duckling What is “Family”? What is “me”? As Japan’s communal family system collapses and families become more nuclear, the relationship between “me” and “family” shifts. We hear about so many incidents around the world every day, but the relationship between “me” and “my family” seems the most common problem. The massacre in Akihabara, the fatal stabbing of a father in Kawaguchi City by his [Read more...]
2009 Vancouver International Film Festival - Dragons and Tigers Award 2009 Hong Kong International Film Festival - Golden Digital Prize the 65th Venice Film Festival Directed by Emily Tang produced by Chow Keung, Jia Zhangke, Li Xiudong Synopsis: Two women cross paths at a turning point in their lives. Strangers and very different, yet somehow their pasts and futures may [Read more...]
Shot, Written, and Directed by Luciana Burlamaqui 150min. (Pt 1 & 2), Color, documentary, Brazil, 2009, In portguese w/ English & Japanese subtitles Festivals (Selected): 2010 International Cinema Festival in Guadalajara (Mexico)- The Best Latin American Feature Documentary 2009 The 4th Cinema and Human Rights in Latin America Show (16 cities in Brazil)- Audience Award for Best Feature [Read more...]
Hiroshima-Nagasaki, August 1945 Dir. Erik Barnouw Camera: Akira Iwasaki, 16min. B&W, 1945/1970, 16mm film The earliest (and the only) film record of the immediate atomic bomb devastation was shot in September 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Japan Film Co., but was later confiscated by the U.S. Occupation Army. It was kept as a top-secret file until 1967, then for some bureaucratic [Read more...]
This legendary film became even more meaningful this year - after the mega-radiation leakage followed by the 3.11.disaster and the death of Yoshiko Tanaka, the actress who played the protagonist in this film. With the tribute to her life and the people described in the film, and also with the sense of warning to what's going on in the current Japan in mind, we will show it again. Hirosuke [Read more...]