"Easy Japanese" for Hard Times

【医療で用いる「やさしい日本語」】新型コロナウイルス検査編

Extremely proud to be a part of the creative team behind this video targeting heath care professionals testing non-native Japanese speakers for COVID-19.

 

It was awesome to work again with some of the artists behind the documentary Boys for Sale (2017) including N tani studio N谷工房 (illustrations), Jeremy Yamamura (animation) and Komiya Tetsuro (music/ sound effects). And thanks to my longtime friends at 株式会社 栃木プロジェクトプロ for the narration! 

 

While I usually edit from home, this was my first time to direct/ produce over the phone/ Zoom/ Skype.

 

The video was published today:

 

 

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/nwne978lJBc

PRESS RELEASE: https://www.juntendo.ac.jp/co-core/2020/04/58389fa597893e114d4489b46c23cdb7f1d55165.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3W15ZEM9sn040mux1wG7OrPk9PGjQsyFa_4t8rF6yLWGPx-LTPbDPMLyk

Presenting at UC Berkeley

Extremely honoured to present some of my Fukushima-based film work and speak yesterday at the symposium "Imagining Post 3.11 Futures and Living with Anthropogenic Change" at UC Berkeley. My gratitude to sponsors UC Berkeley Center for Japanese Studies, Japan society for the promotion of science, and the UC Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies. My gratitude also to Professor Hideaki Fujiki (pictured below) for leading the post-screening discussion and to conference organizer Professor Daniel O’Neill for the invitation to participate. 

INFO: https://ieas.berkeley.edu/imagining-futures-post-311-japan 

 

And it was an additional honour to present an 80 minute lecture about my work for the 75 students of Documentary Voices (history, theory, changes in the genre) which is a mandatory class for all film and media majors.

 

「売買ボーイズ」"Boys for Sale" screens at Columbia University

「売買ボーイズ」コランビア大学上映！Honoured to screen "Boys For Sale" in the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University today! 🎥❤️ INFO

ただいま！🇯🇵❤️ After 10 days away, I’m home!✈️🙏

 (This blog is based on social media posts from Nov 13-15, 2019.)

Candadian Premier of "Sending Off"

One of the best parts of attending a film festival is getting to see so many great films! 🎥❤️Saw 5 today and going to 6 tomorrow (no time for jet lag😊)! Canadian Premier of 「おみおくり〜Sending Off〜」in Windsor International Film Festival on Thurs (Nov 7). 🇨🇦 TICKETS

So grateful to Windsor International Film Festival's Executive Director & Chief Programmer Vincent Georgie for his shout out about my film before introducing the superstar director Werner Herzog’s latest documentary “Nomad” to a theatre full of people! 🙏🎥❤️

パパが映画祭に到着しました！LOOK who has joined me! I started today watching the shocking and wonderful “There are No Fakes” and then my dad joined me and hit the ground running watching THREE docs with me today: the eye-opening “Ghost Fleet”, the inspiring “Gay Chorus Deep South”, and the absolutely breath-taking, inspiring and phenomenal “Prey” about the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal.

Huge honour to hold Canadian Premier of 「おみおくり〜Sending Off〜」 at Windsor International Film Festival yesterday! Especially grateful to Executive Director/ Chief Programmer Vincent Georgie who introduced the film and to board member/ programmer Kim Nelson for conducting the Q&A! 🎶🎥 There are so many amazing films here (I watched 3 more yesterday- “Killing Patient Zero” an important story about the AIDS crises, Ken Loach’s suffocatingly realistic “Sorry I Missed You” and the screening of “Untouchable” that was attended by two Harvey Weinstein survivors. Off to the cinema to watch SIX more films today... 💕🎥🎶

Watched another 8 great films (including fascinating “Cold Case Hammarskjold”, crushing “By the Grace of God”, beautiful “Toni Morrison: the Pieces I Am”, and devastating “For Sama”), a few drinks and a delicious Ethiopian dinner later...🎥🍻💕

A wonderful last day with my dad at the festival with three more docs (“Olympia”, “Refugee” & “The Biggest Little Farm”). Thank you, Windsor International Film Festival for the awesome experience! We look forward to seeing you again at a future edition. Congratulations on 15 years and here’s to many, many more!! 🎥💕🥂

飛行場でパパと別れのコーヒーを飲んで、一人でニューヨークへ！✈️❄️✈️❄️✈️❄️

Said goodbye to my dad over a coffee at the airport in Detroit, and now I am taking off for NYC (he is on his way home to DC)! Honoured to screen「売買ボーイズ」Boys For Sale at Columbia University in the City of New York tomorrow (Nov 12)! Thank you all for your support! 🎥❤️ INFO

 (This blog is based on a series of social media posts from Nov 5-12, 2019.)

"Sending Off" holds Guam Premier

「おみおくり～Sending Off～」のグアム島初上映!! 

After landing on Guam, I went straight from the airport directly to Hit Radio 100 Guam's Rocking Rich’s show for a live interview about the Guam premier of 「おみおくり～Sending Off～」(INFO)!

Guam International Film Festival hospitality team’s Jonah

Thanks to Guam International Film Festival's Kel & Don Muna and the entire festival team, the screening of「おみおくり〜Sending Off〜」 at the gorgeous Guam Museum was attended by a really responsive audience and was followed by a Q&A filled with great questions. Such an honour to screen with Guam International Film Festival again- the first time was in 2013 (story HERE and HERE).

Guam International Film Festival's Kel & Don Muna

The day after the screening, I had a wonderful recorded conversation with filmmaker Kel Muna for an upcoming project followed by the honour of serving on the Guam International Film Festival panel “The Impact of Culture + Film” alongside film professor Dr. Ray Anderson, Cultural Artist and educator Eva Aguon Cruz and filmmakers Denton Pangelinan, Keanno Fausto & Patrick Hogan which was recorded at Guam Museum in front of a live audience for broadcast by PBS Guam! INFO 

「おみおくり〜Sending Off〜」 will next be screening in Canada in the Windsor International Film Festival on Thu, Nov 7 at 3:30PM! Hope to see you there! TICKETS

(This blog is based on a series of social media posts from Oct 11-14, 2019.)

"Sending Off" holds Austrian Premier

「おみおくり ~ Sending Off ~ 」オーストリア初上映！

In Vienna for the Austrian Premier of 「おみおくり ~ Sending Off ~ 」.  And the prize for the most elegant festival accommodation goes to... Japannual!

with festival co-director Georg

The opening of Japannual with the Japanese Ambassador to Austria His Excellency Koinuma Kiyoshi, director Chikaura Kei (Complicity 風の樹は琴のように) and director Sekine Kousai (The Tower of the Sun 太陽の塔 & Love at Least 生きてるだけで、愛). With so many great sponsors (including Suntory ROKU GIN you know it is going to be a great time!

Honoured to be invited to speak to students and faculty of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna. I spoke about my work and shared clips in my talk entitled “Aging, Death and Dying: Documenting Health and Medicine in Japan”.

Following the Austrian Premier of 「おみおくり〜Sending Off〜」(INFO), Japannual Japanische Filmtage in Wien’s Georg Schneider leads the post-screening discussion. Grateful for the wonderful questions and discussion with the audience! 

Extremely honoured to be invited as part of the delegation of filmmakers from Japan attending Japannual Film Festival to the residence of the Japanese Ambassador to Austria His Excellency Koinuma Kiyoshi for a private reception this afternoon.

Japannual’s communications director Alexandra Faust, His Excellency Koinuma Kiyoshi and film director Chikaura Kei (Complicity 風の樹は琴のように).

(This blog is based on a series of social media posts from Oct 1-4, 2019.)