Geert Lovink on Sun, 2 Oct 2011 13:09:55 +0200 (CEST)


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[Nettime-nl] B F F E 2011 AMSTERDAM 1, 2 & 3 October


B F F E    2011         AMSTERDAM             Oct.1, 2 & 3

                      Hommage to J A P A N

BFFE- buddhist film festival europe
zondag 2 oct. vanaf 13 uur en maandag 3 october vanaf 18uur in de Balie

Wegens tsunami dit jaar gekozen voor rijke keus aan films over de schoonheid van Japan,
maar ook over de nucleaire ramp

zondagmddag half vier speciaal debat JAPAN, PEOPLE & ENVIRONMENT olv Emile Fallaux,

Diverse films oer democratisering van Burma.
zie voor programma: www.bffe.org

--

Osamu Tezukaâs Buddha

Saturday October 1st  2011 |  22.00 hours

Compagnietheater | Grote zaal/ Kloveniersburgwal 50

Japan - 123 min â 2011

English subtitels

Avant - premiÃre

Osamu Tezukaâs Buddha is the story of Buddha, originally drawn in manga. Manga refers specifically to comics originally published in Japan. The great founder of manga is Osamu Tezuka, who made hundreds of manga since 1946. Tezuka shows with this new film, released in May 2011, his unique vision of the life of Gautama Buddha.

In the original 1972-1983 manga, Tezuka recounts the life of the young prince Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism. In ancient India, the intertwining lives of many unhappy souls are drawn together by the birth of the young prince Siddhartha. He embarks on a spiritual journey, becomes Buddha, âthe Enlightened Oneâ and attempts to bring about a spiritual rebirth of the people in this desperate age.

Osamu Tezuka's Buddha will be a trilogy. The critically-acclaimed series is referred to as a gritty, even sexual, portrayal of Buddha's life. Director: Kozo Morishita - voice cast: narrotor & Chapra's mother: Sayuri Yoshinaga - Chapra: Masato Sakai - Siddharta: Hidetaka Yoshioka - original story: Osamu Tezuka - screenplay: Reiko Yoshida - music: Michiru Oshima - image art: Reiko Okano - screen director: Go Koga - character design & executive animator director: Hideaki Maniwa - art director: Shinzo Yuki - Â 2011 Osamu Tezuka's Buddha Production Committee


Black Rain

Sunday  October 2nd  2011 | 13.00 hours

De Balie | Grote zaal / Leidseplein, Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10

Japan - 123 min â 1989

English subtitels

A historic film about the aftermath of Hiroshima, based on the novel Black Rain. In Japanese literature, there are a number of trends on bomb-related themes, such as the open protests against the American bombs. But this movie puts the events in Hiroshima in a wider, more spiritual perspective. The core of the film revolves around the suffering, impermanence and uncertainty about the moment of death.

The damage inflicted by nuclear weapons goes far beyond the physical effects, how terrible those might be. In Black Rain you see how nuclear weapons can rip a society apart. The story moves between the notes of Shizuma Shigematsu in 1945, after the dropping of the atomic bomb, and the year 1950. The film explores in detail the nuclear effects on the life of a woman, her family, and the people in her village being poisoned by the heavy rain. Filmed in black and white, director Imamura forces his audience to focus on the suffering, leaving sensation behind.

Director: ShÃhei Imamura - novel Black Rain by: Masuji Ibuse - script: ShÃhei Imamura, Toshirà Ishidà - with: Yoshiko Tanaka, Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara, Shoichi Ozawa a.o. - producer: Hisao Iino - executive producer: ShÃhei Umamura - music: TÃru Takemitsu - cinematography: Takashi Kawamata - editor: Hajime Okayasu - camera: Masachi Chikamori - special effects: Masatoshi Saito - ÂHayashibara Group, Imamura Productions, Tohokashinsha Film Company Ltd.

Met  Engelse ondertitels | English subtitles


Abraxas

Sunday  October 2nd  2011 | 21.00 hours

De Balie | Grote zaal

Japan - 113 min - 2010

English subtitels

How do you deal with an intense spiritual struggle? In Abraxas you follow the subtle exploration of the journey of a man whoâs trying to unite his spiritual and worldly life. It is a film where inner peace and happiness come to life.


In his youth Jonen is a punk rocker, but later he transforms into a Buddhist monk. His life is peaceful, until he has a breakdown that leads to a depression. Jonen realizes the importance of music to his life. But can he unite music with his Buddhist way of life?

The film gives a clear message about the beauty of sound, without the serene sounds you might expect. The electric guitar of Jonen lets you get carried away with his feelings. This is perhaps partly thanks to the fact that Jonen is played by Japanese pop star Suneohair. Suneohair gave a great performance with this film of a man looking for meaning in his life.


Director: Naoki Katà - script: Dai SakÃ, Naoki Katà - with: Suneohair, Rie Tomosaka, Manami Honjo, Kaoru Kobayashi, Ryota Murai - music: Yoshihide Otomo, Yasumasa Terui - editor: Hitomi Kato - producer: Hiroko Matsuda, Kosuke Oshida


White Light/Black Rain

Sunday  October 2nd  2011 | 15.15 hours

De Balie | Kleine zaal

Japan, USA - 86 min â 2007

English subtitels

As global tensions rise, the unthinkable could be possible. The threat of nuclear weapons of mass destruction has become frighteningly real. White Light/Black Rain: The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki details the human costs of atomic warfare and stands as a powerful warning that with enough present-day nuclear weapons worldwide to equal 400,000 Hiroshimas, we cannot afford to forget what happened on those two days in 1945.

White Light/Black Rain, by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki, looks at the reality of nuclear warfare with first-hand accounts from those who survived and those whose lives were forever changed by the atomic bomb. Steven Okazaki met more than 500 survivors and interviewed more than 100 before choosing 14 people for the film. Featuring interviews with those fourteen atomic bomb survivors, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, and four Americans intimately involved in the bombings, White Light/Black Rain provides a detailed exploration of the bombings and their aftermath. In a succession of riveting personal accounts, the film reveals both unimaginable suffering and extraordinary human resilience.

Director/script/producer: Steven Okazaki - with: Harold Agnew, Dr. Shuntaro Hida, Kiyoko Imori, Morris Jeppson, Lawrence Johnston, Pan Yeon Kim, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a.o. - executive producers: Robert Richter, Sheila Nevins - co-producers: Taro Goto, Atsuko Shigesawa - cinematography: Masafumi Kawasaki - sound: Yuki Fukuda - camera: Masafumi Ichinose - editor: Geof Bartz - production: Farallon Films

Peace

Sunday October 2nd 2011 | 19.00 hours

De Balie | Kleine zaal

Japan, USA - 75 min â 2010

English subtitels

What is peace? What is coexistence? And what are the bases for them? Peace is a documentary which contemplates these questions by observing the daily lives of people and stray cats in Okayama city, Japan, where life and death, acceptance and rejection are intermingled.

Toshio Kashiwagi runs an affordable taxi service for the disabled and the elderly. Meanwhile, he feeds a group of stray cats everyday. However, there is a growing tension in the catsâ peaceful community because a male âthief catâ, an outsider, is trying to invade it.

Toshioâs wife, Hiroko, runs a non-profit organization, which sends home helpers to houses of the elderly and the disabled. At home, she has been grumbling about the way Toshio feeds his cats. Hiroko regularly visits 91-year-old Shiro Hashimoto to help with his daily routines. Hashimoto is spending his final days thinking about his own death. His memories of being drafted to World War II come back to him while dealing with Hiroko.

Directed, produced, shot and edited by: Kazuhiro Soda - with: Shiro Hashimoto, Hiroko & Toshio Kashiwagi a.o.


Shugendo Now

Sunday October 2nd 2011 | 21.00 hours

De Balie | Kleine zaal

Canada â 88 min - 2010

Japan | English subtitels

How does one integrate lessons learned from nature in daily life? This feature documentary is an experiential journey into the mystical practices of Japanese mountain asceticism. In Shugendà (The Path of Acquiring Power) practitioners perform ritual actions from shamanism, ShintÃ, Taoism and Tantric Buddhism.

They seek experiential truth of the teachings during arduous climbs in sacred mountains. Through the peace and beauty of the natural world, practitioners purify the six roots of perception, revitalize their energy and reconnect with their truest nature â all while grasping the fundamental interconnectedness with nature and all sentient beings. But how does one return to the city after an enlightening experience in the mountains?

More poetic than analytical, this film explores how a group of modern Japanese people integrate the myriad ways in which mountain learning interacts with urban life. With intimate camera work and a sensual sound design the viewer is taken from deep within the Kumano mountains to the floating worlds of Osaka and Tokyo and back again. Might the two be seen as one?

Director, camera, editor: Jean-Marc Abela - producer, research: Mark Patrick McGuire - with: Tateishi KÃshÃ, Inoue RyÃ, Nakamura Seiichi, Nakamura Chiharu, Nakamura Hidemi, Nakamura Ayako a.o. - sound: Mark Patrick McGuire, Jean-Marc Abela - sound design: Jean-Marc Abela, Tyler Fitzmaurice.

Inland Sea

Monday October 3rd  2011 | 18.00

De Balie | Kleine zaal

Japan, USA - 56 min â 1991

English spoken

The Inland Sea is a breathtaking journey to the heart, the mind and the senses. The film is based on the book The Inland Sea by Donald Richie, one of the leading Western authorities on Japanese cinema and culture. The film revives the inspired vision of Donald Richie, who captured the old Japan in his classic travel memoires.

The Inland Sea describes the search for the timeless heart of Japan between its mysterious waters and forgotten islands. Donald Richie narrates the film, in which he puts the ongoing conflict between traditional and modern values next to the serene beauty of this zone, known as the Inland Sea. It's the nearly landlocked, lake-like body of water bounded by three of Japan's four major islands and the somewhat less well-known sea of the author's own inner self.

Producer, director and writer of cultural documentaries Lucille Carra documented with this film an ancient way of life that is rapidly disappearing. The story is told by the breathtaking cinematography of Hiro Narita and by the music of renowned composer TÃru Takemitsu.

Director/script/producer: Lucille Carra - book written by: Donald Richie - producer: Brian Cotnoir - executive producer: Gerald Carrus - cinematography: Hiro Narita - editor: Brian Cotnoir - sound: Tom Hartig - music: TÃru Takemitsu - special thanks to: Michael Trombetta


The Mushroom Club

Monday October 3rd 2011 | in one programme with Inland Sea

De Balie | Grote Zaal

 Japan - 34 min â 2005

English subtitles

A filmmakerâs journey to Hiroshima, sixty years after the bomb. The film tells a very personal story that must not be forgotten, because the nuclear attack seems to be faded away in the memories of the people.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki decided to make this film in 1995 when the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing came and went with minimal media coverage. âPeople thought that the Hiroshima story would finally be heard around the world. Then it came and nothing happenedâ, said Okazaki. He takes a very personal look at Hiroshima â the place, the people and the historical event. It is a compelling collection of everyday images and powerful stories.

The film features several hibakusha or atomic bomb survivors. The oldest was a 25 year old newlywed and the youngest werenât born yet when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945. On that day, all of their lives were unalterably changed, beyond what most of us can imagine.

Produced, written, directed, filmed & edited by: Steven Okazaki - with: Yumi Nekomoto, Masako Unezaki, Masa Takubo - associate producer: Yumi Nekomoto - post-production supervisors: Marissa Aroy, Michael Wilson - artwork and animation: Keiji Nakazawa


Dream Window: Reflections on the Japanese Garden
Monday October 3rd 2011 | 20.30 hours

De Balie | Kleine zaal



Japan, USA - 58 min - 1992

English subtitels

A journey through some of the most beautiful gardens in the world. Renowned for their beauty, Japanese gardens have been retreats for people to rediscover the natural world and themselves for more than a thousand years. Dream Window: reflections on the Japanese Garden is a documentary exploring the powerful effect that Japanese gardens have on the people who come in contact with them.

The movie offers you the art of the Japanese garden as you have never seen before. Prominent Japanese personalities add commentary which sheds light on the role of gardens in Japanese society today. Dream Window is a rare public screening of a contemporary classic.

The documentary reveals the secrets of both classical and contemporary Japanese gardens, including the legendary Moss Temple SaihÅ-ji. SaihÅ- ji is a Rinzai Zen Buddhist temple in Matsuo, Japan. The temple is famous for its moss garden, âKoke-deraâ in Japanese. Also ShÅgakuin Katsura Imperial Villa and Sogetsu Hall are Japanese gardens that you will see in Dream Window.

Director: John Junkerman - writer: Peter Grilli - music: TÃru Takemitsu - produced by: Kajima corporation


Surviving the tsunami

Sunday October 2nd 2011 | 16:30 hours

De Balie | Salon

Japan - 58 min - 2011

English subtitels

Vast amounts of footage captured by NHK and local residents, along with the analysis of experts, provide a comprehensive look at the destructive force of the catastrophic tsunami. The program also tracks down survivors who were filmed during the deluge and presents the stories of what they experienced as the tsunami swept through their towns. Surviving the Tsunami draws out the lessons of what needs to be done to protect lives in the future.


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