International Competition
Notes: Abe Koji (AK), Hama Haruka (HH), Inada Takaki (INT), Kato Hatsuyo (KH), Kikuchi Tsubasa (KT),
Niiya Kazuki (NK), Tanaka Shimpei (TS), Yoshida Miwa (YM), Yuki Hidetake (YH)
The Shape of Resistance
There is no one among us who is certain of escaping prison. Today less than ever. Police control is tightening on our everyday life, in city streets, and on the roads; expressing an opinion is once again an offense for foreigners and young people . . .
—“Announcement of the GIP [Groupe d’Information sur les prisons]” (February 8, 1971), cited in Didier Eribon, Michel Foucault (Harvard UP, 1991), 224.
The above quote is from a declaration issued as a protest against the prison system by an activist group to which the French thinker Michel Foucault belonged. Foucault concentrated on power as a research subject while also actively engaging as an activist. I can’t help but notice that what comes to mind in writing this is not Foucault’s theoretical work, devoured by young people in the 1990s, but rather his activism. Are we not long since removed from the era when youth worldwide loudly proclaimed revolution and opposition to the system?
A common thread running through the films that have been selected for this year’s International Competition seems to be the theme of resistance. Resistance in the words exchanged at the drinking party in Another Home, in the history of the city depicted in Below the Clouds, in the time that elapses for the rural community in Direct Action, in the poetry from the streets in L’homme-Vertige: Tales of a City, in the stories that live in the alleyways in I Was, I Am, and I Will Be!, in the film footage that links the family to contemporary history in Letters to My Dead Parents, in the love emanating from prison in Malqueridas, in the voices of immigrants heard over the radio in Park, in the light that shines in the darkness of a blackout in Rising Up at Night, in the local tales passed down in The Seasons, in the scenes of everyday life during wartime captured in Time to the Target, in the memories of refugee camps traced in TrepaNation, in the strong will of the woman profiled in Welded Together, in the transmission of memories attempted in A Window of Memories, and against the historical forgetting represented in With Hasan in Gaza.
History shows that humanity has repeatedly fallen into a vicious cycle: while people either willingly support those who incite fear and exclusion or simply look the other way, the power of the system quietly strengthens, a climate emerges in which it becomes difficult to speak or act freely, and eventually they themselves become the targets of control and oppression. It seems to me that those involved in the creation of art have sensed that the contemporary world is becoming enveloped in just such a negative atmosphere. It could be said that this year’s lineup of films reflects this kind of discomfort with the changes in the air and, in summoning forms of resistance, has borne fruit as art. Perhaps those who create art can most clearly sense the encroaching shadow of negativity that now seems to hang over our time.
I would like to express the respect I feel for the films and filmmakers that have given us occasion to revisit the thoughts of Foucault, who in deepening his investigations of power, seems to have reflected on his own power within academia and turned to protest. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who continues to support this film festival.