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Princess Plum P-udding
JAPAN / 1999 / Japanese/ Color / Video / 35 min Director, Script, Photography, Sound, Editing: Terashima Mari Additional filming: Abe Yukiko Sound effects: Kizu Yuji Narration: Konno Yukari Producer, Source: Terashima Mari 65 Ichijojisatonomae-cho, Sakyo-ku Kyoto-shi, Kyoto 606-8117 JAPAN Phone & Fax: 81-75-791-8294		Terashima Mari Graduated from Kyoto College of Art in 1989. Won Grand Prize at the Image Forum Festival in 1991. Annual screening at the Image Forum Film Festival since 1991. Installation work exhibited in the Mito Annual 92 at the Art Tower Mito, in 1992. Film screened at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival in 1995. Work has toured around the world under the auspices of The Japan Foundation since 1997.
In 19th century Europe, photographs of the "grotesque" such as deformed bodies and corpses were popular and enthusiastically traded and collected. In contemporary Japan, a video about voluptuous little Sayomi-chan who loves to collect Mickey Mouse paraphernalia - how do people look at her as she sways to Baroque in a white negligee? Do modern day cavaliers court her? Will her domineering mother save her from evil eyes? The director hands her the video camera and attempts to present the world through her perspective. She dresses her up in extravagance, shows off her glamorous presence, and proves that she is no sissy object or victim - she is larger than life. Director's Statement It was a shock to meet the main character of this film, a woman with a slight mental disability, since I had never had the chance to know someone with disabilities. By working with her in the process of making this film, I was able to merge documentary techniques with experimental images, the latter being a style that had dominated all my previous work. This was possible in part because I had the strong urge to try to understand her, rather than to force my own image of her onto the screen. It is a myth that a mentally disabled person possesses an innocent soul, thus, is perfectly beautiful. In fact there were times she tried to make us give up the filming by complaining "I don't care," and other times when she gave her mother a hard time. But all of this is what I like about her. It was impressive that Simone, a Drag Queen who played a role in this film, was actually jealous of this woman, a natural Diva.
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