Friday, October 24, 2014

Popcorn with chopsticks?

'A2-B-C' (WEBSITE) screened twice tonight in Chigasaki (outside Tokyo).  With an hour each way on the train, I decided to use the time to update and re-organize the media associated with my work, something I have been meaning to do for months.

First, I rearranged the playlists on my YouTube Channel (HERE), so that Trailers (PLAYLIST), Q&A's, Extras & Interviews (PLAYLIST) and News & Press Conferences (PLAYLIST) can be easily found.
https://www.youtube.com/user/DocumentingIan/
Next, I tackled the Media Page of the DocumentingIan.com website (HERE), updating it for the first time in nearly a year (!).  The Media Page is a collection of news stories and VIDEO clips from news reports about my films published by media outlets from around the world.  It now also contains articles that I have been commissioned to write, including the recently published Japan’s Foreign Filmmakers: ‘Weastern’ Cinema?, written for the UK's Raindance Film Festival catalogue (HERE).
Even my Japanese distributor and I have disagreed about the way ‘A2-B-C’ is advertised.  In the press materials it is described as being “A film about Fukushima through the eyes of an American director,” which I object to because I find it reductive.  As a filmmaker I hope the focus will be on the children I have documented and not on the fact that I happen to be gaikokujin. Can you imagine if the press release had described the film ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (2005), by director Ang Lee, as “gay white cowboys through the eyes of a straight Taiwanese-born naturalized-American director?

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