Geidai Animation 05 GO

The school year is coming to a close in Japan, which means it’s time for Tokyo University of the Arts (aka Geidai) to celebrate its latest cohort of graduates.  Every spring, Geidai does a series of screenings and events to showcase the works of its students, in addition to commemorating the graduating class with the release of a DVD (links to previous DVDs at bottom).  The 2-year graduate programme has had much success at international festivals with many of its graduates including Atsushi Wada (In a Pig’s Eye, The Great Rabbit), Saori Shiroki (MAGGOT, Woman Who Stole Fingers), and Ryo Okawara (Orchestra, A Wind Egg), among many other talented artists.

The fifth cohort has been given the title GEIDAI ANIMATION 05 GO, and features a diverse range of animation styles from pastel on paper to stop motion.   Things kick off this coming weekend in Yokohoma (March 7-9, 2014) with two 60-minute programmes of graduate films and one 60-minute selection of works first year students.  On Friday at 4pm, there will also be a Talk Event with writer-director Sanao Katabuchi (Black Lagoon, Mai Mai Miracle, Sherlock Hound) while Saturday will feature a Talk Event with Noburo Ofuji Award-winning animator Shigeru Tamura (The Glassy Ocean / Ursa Minor Blue / Phantasmagoria).

The following weekend (March 15-21), the showcase moves to Tokyo Eurospace for a week of screenings and events.  Some of the featured events in Tokyo include legendary animator Gisaguro Sugii (Night on the Galactic Railroad, The Life of Gusukou Budori) in conversation with animation specialist Ilan Nguyen, who teaches at Geidai and innovative animator Yasuhiro Yoshiura (Pale Cocoon, Time of Eve) in conversation with Geidai professor Mitsuko Okamoto.  Some evenings with feature chats with the programme’s key mentors: Okamoto, Koji Yamamura (Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor,Muybridge’s Strings), and Yuichi Ito (Knaycki, NoRabbits’ Minutes).

The best news of all, for those of us not lucky enough to be in the Yokohama – Tokyo area this month, Geidai is hosting a livestream on USTREAM this weekend. Full Schedule and programming information can be found at on the official website.

ハッシュタグ　#geidai_05_go

Twitter：https://twitter.com/geidai_05_go

HP：http://animation.geidai.ac.jp/05go/

Fifth Cohort Graduate Films Program A (60 min.)

第五期生修了作品　Aプログラム （60分）

Warriors

Noriko Okamoto 岡本典子

Exit My Room (おでかけ/Odekake)

Ayaho Kawakami 川上彩穂

Pamon (パモン)

Kazushige Tōma 当真一茂

My Milk Cup Cow (コップの中の子牛/Koppu no naka no Koushi)

Yantong Zhu朱彦潼

Flower Bud (花芽/Haname)

Saki Nakano 中野咲

Everyday Sins (日々の罪悪/Hibi no Zaiaku)

Yewon Kim キム・イェオン

Way Back to the Sea (なまずは海に還る/Namazu wa umi ni kaeru)

Kaori Iwase 岩瀬夏緒利

Fifth Cohort Graduate Films Program B (60 min.)

第五期生修了作品　Bプログラム （60分）

Decorations

Mari Miyazawa 宮澤真理

Mrs. KABAGOdZILLA (ミセス・カバゴジラ)

Moe Koyano 小谷野萌

00:08

Yūtarō Kubo 久保雄太郎

Crazy Little Thing (澱みの騒ぎ/Yodomi no Sakagi )

Onohana  小野ハナ (Hana Ono)

Growth Factor (だっぴするためにひつようなこと/Dappisu tame ni hitsu you na koto)　

Ryōsuke Ōshiro大城良輔

Lonesome Hero (ひとりぼっちのヒーロー/Hitori botchi no hīrō)

Manami Wakai 若井麻奈美

First Year Student Works 2014   (60 min.)

1年次制作2014 （60分）

Scape Escape (ぜんぶわかってる/Zembu wakatteru)　

Yukie Nakauchi中内友紀恵

ImZoo　

koya

Oh Dear (あらら/Arara)

Megumi Ishitani 石谷恵

SPOON

Yikun Wang  オウ・イコン

Reinventing the Square Wheel (四角い車輪の再発明/Shikakui Sharin no Saihatsumei)　

Yasuaki Adachi  足立靖明

Mind Game (形而上の無限思考/Keijijyō no Mugenshikō)　

Risa Yamashita  山下理紗

GYRØ

Madoka 円香

Return to Dust　

Ataru Sakagami  坂上直

Fishing (漁/Ryō)　

Ai Sugaya 菅谷愛

tumbled cat

Toshikazu Tamura　田村聡和

The closet

Satomi Maiya米谷聡美

My Dear

Yagi  山羊

See ya Mr. Banno! (黄色い気球とばんの先生/Kiroi Kikyū to Banno Sensei)　

Yōko Yuki  幸洋子

aaH/Hee (ああ／良い / aa / ii)　

Shishi  Yamazaki ししやまざき

Through the Windows　

Miyo Sato  佐藤美代

THE FALL

Kohei Takeda  武田浩平

To order DVDs of earlier graduating Geidai classes:
GEIDAI ANIMATION 1st Graduate Works 2010
GEIDAI ANIMATION 2nd Graduate Works 2011
GEIDAI ANIMATION 3rd Graduate Works 2012
GEIDAI ANIMATION 4th Graduate Works 2013

cmmhotes 2014

Berlinale 2014 Portrait: Tamaki Okamoto

Earlier this month, ARTE ran an interview with Tamaki Okamoto in order to learn more about her Paris-based production/distribution company CaRTe bLaNChe which has become a sensation at European film festivals.  She is the European distributor of a new wave of Japanese independent animators and experimental filmmakers like Atsushi Wada, who won the Silver Bear in 2012 for his animated short The Great Rabbit (2012).  She also represents some of the films of young artists such as Mirai Mizue, Isamu Hirabayashi, Tadasuke Kotani, Yoriko Mizushiri, Shin Hashimoto, and TOCHKA, among others.  CaRTe bLaNChe also distributes the recent works of more established experimental filmmakers such as the legendary Keiichi Tanaami (see: Chalet Pointu DVD) and Keita Kurosaka (Midori-ko).  Their catalogue also features some non-Japanese artists such as Hakhyun Kim’s Greeum and Cédric Dupire and Gaspard Kuentz’s exploration of the Tokyo music scene We Don’t Care About Music Anyway (2009).

I have embedded the interview below.  It can be viewed in German or French.  For those of you who speak neither, I have translated the interview into English below, beginning with the introductory blurb from the ARTE website:

The Great Rabbit and other films by [Atsushi] Wada are part of the catalogue of works distributed by the Paris-based Japanese Tamaki Okamoto.  Far from her native land, she has developed a unique perspective on animation.  Artists and filmmakers who make works that are a far cry from mainstream manga, but also a far cry from the well-worn Kafkaesque paths of the usual festival and television markets, have found in her both a supporting voice and a producer/distributor.

Who is this woman whose company CaRTe bLaNChe has become such a talking point [at the Berlinale]?  How does she work, and what motivates her work? 

Interview by: Catherine Kohler (sp?)  and Daniel Pfeiffer

Narrator: Three years ago, Tamaki Okamoto established her own production company called CaRTe bLaNChe in Paris.  She is known for excellence and originality and has a unique taste for extraordinary aesthetics.  Like the owner of an art gallery, she looks after her artists and promotes their projects to great international acclaim. 

Tamaki Okamoto (TO):  I try to keep a small catalogue.  That’s not always easy to do.  At the same time, it’s not easy to find films that one really falls in love with.  I struggle to find artists whose work really moves me.  That only happens once or twice a year, and that’s fine by me.  It’s a bit like human relationships.  Our criteria for selecting films has to do with feelings.  With too many films, it would be hard for me to be in love with all of them.  That’s the reason why I don’t have such a thick catalogue like other production companies.   

TO:  I work mainly with young filmmakers, but there are a couple of exceptions.  For example, Keiichi Tanaami.  He is the eldest artist that I work with, but also the most open.  Tanaami is 74 years old, is extremely well known in Japan, and has had an exceptional career.  His work inspires me because he’s so truly open and fresh in his ideas.  He’s so curious and doesn’t set any boundaries for himself.  That’s why at 74 he has created his own artistic world.  That’s my dream.  After all, he’s the first artist that I worked with [when I established CaRTe bLaNChe]. 

TO:  It’s a bit like the mise-en-scène in cinema.  Daily, I toil with the mise-en-scène and I love it.  I love to help create a certain creative voice that gives people a kind of desire to live life.  People need that.  The possibility of that is the function of cinema for me and I think it is reflected in the films that I select.  And it perhaps affects the kind of films that I decide to produce.  I greatly value the production process of my auteurs – I am very sensitive to the needs of the artist at work and I concern myself with all the small details.   I must admit that I love directors who are workaholics, even slightly obsessive.  In my daily life as a cineaste I am also a bit obsessive. 

[Okamoto drinks tea in a split screen with a tea-drinking scene from Yumi Joung’s Love Games (2012)]

 

TO:  I think some of the big festivals take short films as a kind of a test.  A short film before a long film as a kind of apprentice piece.  In my view, that’s not the right way to look at it.  This format is perfect for demonstrating true creativity.  That is particularly the case with animation.  I often find that the truly creative and extraordinarily interesting animated films are all short films.  When one makes long films, one needs a script and a certain kind of format.  It’s a much more conventional medium [than short films].  It constrains creativity.  From my point-of-view, it’s easier for filmmakers to express themselves using the short film format.  As I said, there are festivals who understand the trailblazing nature of short films, and there are festivals who don’t get it.  I think the Berlinale totally gets it.  That’s why the Berlinale is a natural fit for my films.  And for the past three years I have been lucky to have the chance to show films at the Berlinale. 

Narrator:  The film WONDER by Mirai Mizue is currently competing in the Shorts category.  Here [5:58-] is an exclusive sample of the film for our audience. 

[there is also a short clip of Yoriko Mizushiri’s Futon (2012) at the very end]

Programme: Kurzschluss #677

Broadcaster: ARTE France - ZDF - Deutschland 2014

First broadcast: Sunday, 7 February 2014, 23:25

English translation by Anna Maria Hotes and Catherine Munroe Hotes

Additional text by Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014. 

KurzSchluss #677: Berlinale Special – Mirai Mizue

Mirai Mizue (MM) was interviewed by ARTE as part of the KurzSchluss short film programme at the Berlinale earlier this month with his CaRTe bLaNChe producer Tamaki Okamoto (TO) acting as his interpreter.  You can currently watch the six-minute interview at Zoom – Die Kurzfilme der Berlinale Shorts.  But, as television stations have a habit of deleting the online content after a certain period of time, I have written up an English transcript of the interview. I  have omitted Okamoto's interpretation and done my own translation of Mizue's answers (with assistance, as ever, from my fluently trilingual husband)   I have also eliminated “ums” and other non-essential expressions to cut to the essence of the answers.

The highlights of this interview for me are Mirai Mizue’s kimono featuring a print of images from WONDER and Tamaki Okamoto’s stunning hairstyle.  The questions are rather pedestrian – they seem to be a list of questions to be asked of all the animators – but Mizue’s answers are fascinating.  I love how his face transforms into an expression of mischievous delight at the end when he is asked to draw something for them and he whips out a handful of markers from the sleeves of his kimono.  Priceless. 

ARTE: Are you living animation?

MM:  I think that everything I do in my daily life is related to animation.  I feel animation all the time, whatever I do.

ARTE:  What was the first image of your film?

MM:  It is just a simple black point.  It signifies the starting point of drawing. 

ARTE:  How much did your film cost?

TO:  20,000 - 25,000€

ARTE: Who are you inspired by?

MM:  For classic animation, I admire animators like Oskar Fischinger and Norman McLaren.  I also like animators like Georges Schwizgebel for the way they use music in their work. 

ARTE: What’s the story?

MM:  The story does not necessarily have to come from me.  The audience can make the stories themselves after seeing my films.  I just want to make animation with colour, form, and music in order to make people feel happiness or some other emotion.  The story will be different for each audience member because they will each react uniquely to their experience of the film.

ARTE:  Do you draw every day?

MM:  Yes, WONDER, was a project where I actually had to draw every day for 365 days.  Initially, I had to force myself to draw every day for the project.  At the beginning, the goal was just to complete the daily task for the animation film, but after a while - and this was a new experience for me - the situation changed.  I was no longer drawing just for the film but I was overcome with a sensation of taking great pleasure from drawing and I wanted to feel that sensation every day.    

ARTE: Can you make a drawing for us?

[MM pulls markers out of his kimono sleeves and sets about drawing on a sheet of plain white paper]

Interview ©2014 ARTE /Berlinale

Transcription and additional text by Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014