New Asian Currents
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- Jurors
- Iguchi Nami
Thaiddhi
Notes: Hiromoto Nanako (HN), Ishikawa Taichi (IT), Mabuchi Ai (MA), Nakai Yoko (NKY),
Narita Yuta (NRY),
Oki Masaharu (OM), Okubo Risa (OR), Suzuki Ayako (SA), Wakai Makiko (WM)
Every Encounter Starts a Wave—Every Wave Erases a Border
We believe encounters with film are chance encounters with different kinds of “character.” It might be the character of the filmmaker, of their family and friends, or it might be the character of something not necessarily a person—the land, a landscape, or a story. Character that doesn’t compromise draws us in and we find it has made a home in our hearts.
Determining the outline for this program is a selection process of watching the films that were submitted—a contest of endurance akin to a marathon or a climb up a mountain for us, the selection team and advisors, who each have many encounters with films each day in the process. It can’t be talked about without mentioning the person who was involved in it longer than anyone—Yano-san. He passed away in August of 2024. He was involved in the selection process of films for New Asian Currents and the International Competition for many years. He watched more films than anyone, regardless of the category. He was earnest in both his enjoyment and disappointment of what he saw. He could keep track of which directors had been shown before, what their films were, and he knew the films of directors who had continued to submit to YIDFF. For Yano-san, the memory of the films he had seen and the anticipation of those yet to come were like the continuous glow of his lit cigarette. And he had his own character. Magnetic and uncompromising. He abides with us still, and with the festival. We are desolated by his absence.
During the selection process, we discovered films that taught us how there is love at the root of the feeling of desolation. In watching documentaries it's easy to focus on the violence of pointing a camera at someone, but we were reminded that obviously sometimes a person turns a camera on another out of love. We also were struck by films that deliberately blurred high-resolution images with analog noise, dust, and shaky filming. Sometimes images that are too clean can feel suffocating or emotionally cold in expressing what the filmmaker intends to say, and it is the smudges and distortions that bring us the warmth of life.
Stolen land, memory, identity and ways of life trampled underfoot by colonialism. Inequality spread by capitalist society. Iron-fisted government plundering education, so that freedom of language and choice are lost. And we see that historically those forced to suffer from physical and psychological trauma are often women. In all of this, escaping the negative spiral seems impossible. Transforming the trials of the real world into something better is not simple, but filmmakers embrace ambiguity and chaos, portraying them through a poetic cinematic lens. They stand with a form of resistance defined by both stepping forward but also persistently stepping outside the lines, seeking single rays of light that pierce the darkness—towards freedom.
Films by nature effortlessly cross distances of both time and place. They are born through the crossing of borders, screened across countries and regions, and delivered to audiences amongst more crossings. It’s hard to overcome the distances between us as people. But at the very least, we can direct our gaze to where there could be a bridge and try to build one. The camera’s gaze, slipping through all forms of constraint and seeming to move beyond even the filmmaker’s intentions, is shared with the audience through film—at times, it makes us feel as if barriers dissolve like mist. More than that, the gaze of the film can be directed even toward those no longer in this world. No longer is there any “here” nor “there.” Even though we may not be the ones who directly experienced the confusion, humiliation, anger, pain, joy, happiness, or tenderness—we feel it too. We felt it again this time: Yes, films erase borders.
A film festival may be nothing more than an opportunity, but it is an opportunity for encounters—with and between films and other people. And it is my hope that encounters between people at the festival will clear paths for even more possibilities.
(From YIDFF ’91 Official Catalog, “Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 1989, Then 1991” by Yano Kazuyuki, Festival Coordinator)
We hope this film festival will once again serve as a space for enriching encounters and crossing borders. Let us take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed to making this festival happen.