News

Film director, Kei Shichiri will be the juror at the International Competition to select the award including the Grand Prize (The Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize) , and two of his films have been programed as a work of the juror.
https://www.yidff.jp/2017/program/17p1-2-e.html

DUBHOUSE: Experience in Material No.52（2012/16min）
Another Side / Salome’s Daughter-Remix（2017/83min）

Date: October 11 (Wed)
Time: 10:00-11:50
Venue: Yamagata Central Public Hall 6F
https://www.yidff.jp/2017/schedule/17s11-e.html#v2

Shichiri has contributed his message to the official catalog as follows.
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Juror’s Statement
These days, when anyone can record video and easily make movies, we seem to be trending toward a preference for “our films.” This doesn’t mean that the power of independent films or singular, penetrating points of view has been lost, but that we need more than the outdated sensibilities from the age of dinosaurs. For example, it may be important to be more skeptical about how we think about intimacy. Of course, retaining a sense of “us” isn’t undesirable—in fact it’s crucial—but we also must not forget to remain aware of the Other and that on the Outside. And we must remember to question our methods. Even if we decide that they are OK, we still must remain deeply cautious, and even sometimes act as the voice of contention.
How can films cross swords with reality?
My knowledge and understanding of the inevitability of recording and describing people and the world through film is still wanting, and I want to encounter films that provoke me to be newly and deeply aware of this. If there is any principle to guide me as a juror, it must be this. Therefore, I will probably be tossed about during the Yamagata festival like a small ship in the vast ocean of stimulating documentaries, exhausted.