Juror
Iguchi Nami
[Juror’s Statement]
The offer to take on this role was an unexpected one for me, but since it came through a connection to a workshop I had attended for both Japanese and Southeast Asian students at a film school in Tokyo, I decided to take part in this festival for the first time.
At the time of the workshop, meeting film students from Southeast Asia was a refreshing surprise for me and made me think that even if we couldn’t speak the same oral language, we could perhaps speak the same language when it came to the question, “what is cinema?” A young woman from Malaysia introduced me to Yasmin Ahmad’s film, Talentime (2009), saying I would definitely like it, and sure enough I thought it was wonderful when I saw it. So my inkling that we could perhaps speak a common language when it came to film quietly became a conviction.
I am filled with excitement to discover films, films from other cultures, and various approaches to the shared question, “what is cinema?” through my participation as a juror for New Asian Currents, a program that discovers and supports young Asian filmmakers and for which the late director Ogawa Shinsuke was an advocate.
Film director, born in Tokyo in 1967. Her first independent film, Inuneko (8mm) (2001) took four years to make and won the Pia Film Festival’s Producer’s Award in 2001. She remade the film in 2004 as Dogs and Cats (35mm) for her debut as a commercial film director, and won the Special Jury Prize, International Critics Prize, and Best Screenplay at the 22nd Torino International Film Festival. Her other films include Don’t Laugh at My Romance (2008) and The Tale of Nishino (2014), When Kids Make Movies (2021).
Keep Your Left Hand Down
(Hidarite ni ki wo tsukero)- JAPAN / 2023 / Japanese / Color / DCP / 43 min
Director, Script, Editing: Iguchi Nami
Photography, Post production: Suzuki Akihiko
Music: Yuke Myras, Otaki Atsu
Cast: Nagoya Megumi, Kitaguchi Mia, Matsumoto Kei
Executive Producers: Kanai Kumiko, Kanai Mieko
Producers: Otaki Kaoruko, Otaki Masayuki, Masuhara Noriko
Production, World Sales: Cultural Development Network
Production Company: Naminoripro. LLC
A virus that transmits left-handedness has spread across the world, and the children’s police force is out to round up left-handed people. Kanbe Rin sets out on a journey in search of her missing sister and along the way has a fateful encounter. She is determined to change the world—but can she?
Someone to Sing Over Me
(Dareka ga utatteru)- JAPAN / 2019 / Japanese / Color / DCP / 30 min
Director, Script, Editing: Iguchi Nami
Photography, Post production: Suzuki Akihiko
Music: Hosomi Sakana
Drawing: Yamaguchi Ichiro
Cast: Morioka Miho, Kawai Yusaku, Akitani Yuta, Kitaguchi Mia, Hosomi Sakana, Arai Akino, Yamaguchi Ichiro
World Sales: Naminoripro. LLC
At the usual street corner, a melody drifts in from somewhere unknown. In the midst of everyday life, overlapping coincidences intertwine people’s lives.