Uno Port Art Films has brought cutting-edge independent films from around the world since 2010 under the theme of “Life, Art, Film.” We’ve been appearing at a vacant lot by the Uno Port in Tamano-City, Okayama for many summers, but the wave of development finally arrived and the lot is no longer vacant. So we are traveling this year to Okayama City and Tokyo! Come and watch the documentaries about Micronesian islanders working for the US Army, intersex and transgender communities in Japan, and various shorts (drama, experimental, animation and beyond) from Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, France, Mexico, and Canada, and let the films guide us to better understand each other. This year‘s mini theme is “Intersectionality and inclusivity.“
UPAF 2018 consists of 3 programs: 2 feature docs, and 1 program for short films. The short program will be approximately 90min. We will add a few more films once they are secured. Stay tuned!
The untold story of Micronesian citizens fighting America’s wars at staggeringly high rates per capita. Told through the intimate personal odyssey of the Nenas, a family strives for their piece of the “American Dream”, and deals with the consequences of military service against the backdrop of a pristine Pacific island on the brink of economic collapse. Director & Cinematographer: Nathan [Read more...]
A new film by young Japanese documentarist Sayaka Ono (a disciple of the legendary Kazuo Hara), whose debut feature and self-documentary “The Duckling” made a sensation in Japanese doc world (screened at UPAF 2011). Love and Walbachia is a tapestry of lives and feelings of love of various sexual minorities - intersex, transgender, lesbian, and transvestite people in Japan, shot from a sensitive [Read more...]
Long Vacation In BK is a 26-minute diary. It is an ode to Taiwan and Asia written while I live in Brooklyn. The film opens with the news of a controversial and renowned Chinese photographer Ren Hang’s suicide, which drives me into my memories of my past life in Asia. During 2007-2017, I, myself, a female, me and my avatars, were traveling and searching, escaping from my family. Traveling the [Read more...]
Two teenage outcasts form an uncanny friendship in their remote village. As one discovers the other’s dark secrets, she observes the changes in her new friend to the point of violence, monstrosity and affection. Screened in competitions at Venice International Film Festival, Milano Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, among many others. Director: Amanda Nell Eu. Produced by Gan [Read more...]
(This film can be only screened at the Okayama venue.) Voice of the people are often neglected, same as sound in film that audience don’t care. Two sound recordists are working on final mix of a short film. Will their sound be heard by someone? World premiered at Venice Film Festival, then screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Busan International Film Festival, and won Special [Read more...]
(This film will be screened at Tokyo Venue only.) It's said that all desires and fears arise specifically in the ego. The film is about the relationship of man and woman. But this is only an illusion, imagination, which arose in the mind like a dream. And there is nothing real in this, as ego a man. A surreal drama by a young and promised female director from Kazakhstan. Japan [Read more...]
Les Indes Galantes (The amorous indies), is an opera-ballet created by Jean Philippe Rameau in 1735. He was inspired for one of the dance by tribal Indian dances of Illinois performed by Michigamea chiefs, in Paris in 1725. Clément Cogitore adapts a short part of the ballet by mobilizing a group of Krump dancers, an art form born in Los Angeles black ghetto in the 1990s. Its birth occurred in [Read more...]
The women prisoners from different regions in Mexico with the illiteracy rate closer to 80 percent, because they spoke different languages, they could not communicate with each other in the prison. Having learned a common language together in the rehabilitation programs of prison, they exchange letters after release from prison. These women, who found their voice toward the world, reflect the [Read more...]
In 2006, Hansu Siirala suffered two major strokes that left one half of her body immobile. She now lives in an assisted living home in Vancouver, Canada. Combining a phone conversation with abstract and animated visuals, Hansu Solo is an intimate portrait about how she spends her days and thinks about the passing of time. This film brings together our interest in small details and the big [Read more...]