UPAF was born in 2010 as an annual outdoor festival in Uno Port, Okayama, Japan. We hung our handmade screen on a large trailer, and projected films under the starry sky by the calm Seto Inland Sea. We lost the vacant lot in 2015. We switched to a biennial format in 2016 and continued screening rare films from around the world, with special emphasis on works from the Global South and minoritized filmmakers in the diaspora, until the 10th UPAF in 2024. We are happy and proud that we could reach so many people with our last UPAF, held between Sept 2024 and Feb 2025 online and in person in a completely new format, and deliver strong films that showed the history of Palestine, as well as memorable stories from and about other fellow Asians countries and short films by up-and-coming Japanese directors.
Meanwhile, our co-founders’ daughter, a middle schooler and an essential UPAF staff member back then, has become a mature professional woman in her late 20s; the then-young volunteer staff have become parents or moved to other cities; and the world’s mediascape, politics, and commerce have changed completely. We feel we did what we could, and have decided to halt UPAF in its current form and explore a new way to deliver great films that are hard to access in Japan. We hope to see you again soon in a new form, but with the same edgy and gentle UPAF spirit. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting UPAF for 15 years.
Uno Port Art Films Staff
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Website Administration: Miyo Yanagawa
