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Although the SSFF has traditionally announced the winners of its main awards – the Grand Jury Award and the Short Shorts Award – at the opening ceremony, this year the festival took a different approach by announcing the winners, including the Audience Award, in a closing ceremony. And there a few surprises...
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 At 6:30 p.m., audiences, filmmakers, volunteers and staff rolled into the LaForet Museum Theatre where co-founders Tetsuya Bessho and Doug Williams announced each winner by first screening the film. 'The Platform,' won both the Jury Award and the Audience Award, a first for any film in the festival's five year history. Gregory Starr, Editor-in-Chief and a member of the festival jury this year said that 'The Platform,' was a nearly perfect short film in all of the elements of filmmaking, from the direction to the photography to the editing and the music were so beautifully pulled off. Because the film's director, Robin Walters, was unable to attend the festival, a representative from the New Zealand Embassy in Tokyo stepped in to receive the 100,000 yen awards in Robin's place. In a statement Robin said "I'm delighted that 'The Platform' continues to delight audiences around the world."
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 Screams erupted as the lights went out again and the opening credits for 'Una Bala' popped up on screen. The film, which takes a unique perspective on violence through the eyes of a terminally ill man, was co-directed by Edgar San Juan and Ibon Antunano. Programming Director Marliese Schneider handed the 300,000 award to the filmmakers, telling them that the Committee felt that the universal nature of the themes and characters in 'Una Bala' were intelligently and beautifully visualized in this short film that deals with difficult issues such as life, death, and the consequences of choices people can make.
The SSFF will now tour through Japan and Burma.
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While director Pedro Almodovar is now an Academy Award®-winning director and screenwriter, it's interesting to catch a glimpse of the short films he produced before he became a household name. 'Trailer Para Amantes de lo Prohibido (Trailer For the Lovers of the Forbidden Things),' one of a handful of Maestro Shorts showcased in this year's festival, clearly shows the distinct style for which Almodovar has come to be known: elaborate set designs, colorful costumes, and characters with a stinging, self-effacing humor. The story, of course, deals with love, betrayal and revenge which doesn't quite pay off in the end, but, whofs keeping count?
And who knows what you'll find on the walls of a bathroom in France? In 'QIK2JDG,' a Judge runs into a public bathroom and visualizes the authors of the walls'graffiti come alive. Nick Spano, an actor who turned to directing as a means to spend the money he's made from acting, got the idea for his short after traveling in France and staying at youth hostels where he was intrigued by the graffiti that other travelers left behind. Nick told the audience that 'it was like sharing something intimate with these people,' none of whom he was likely to meet. For the Judge in 'QIK2JDG,' the graffiti he leaves behind will surely intrigue the next bathroom visitor.
In a similar vein, Rob Deleskie's 'Peep Show'gives a couple a chance to explore their own relationship by watching another couple – a smartly dressed pair in matching latex suits – play. "A couple of friends of mine are performance artists. I saw their show, really liked it and got the idea to put it into a peep show setting," Rob said. But the story is not so much about voyeurism as it is about trying new things. "Eventually it became a story about relationships, pushing them to the limits."
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Nick Spano, director of "QUIK2JDG" (right) and Robert DeLeskie, director of "Peep Show" (center)
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Directing child actors is always a challenge, but for Gabe Torres, the challenge for him was greater. 'Last Stand,' the tale of a Lakota Indian boy who comes across a wounded U.S. cavalry man and takes pity on him, presented Gabe with the challenge of finding a Native American child actor. "We couldn't find a (Native American) Indian child actor in Hollywood," he said, so he visited various Indian reservations where he met and auditioned as many actors as he could find. "I met our Joseph Saul, the young Indian boy, through his father. He brought his son to a park, we met and I auditioned him right away. I knew instantly he was the right one for the part." Gabe and lead actor Jason London spent the following weeks helping Joseph prepare for the role, rehearsing together and getting to know him. While Joseph seemed a natural, even more natural was his fear of the task that lay before him. "The night before filming, he got really scared. He said that he couldn't do it, because everyone else in the production was a professional actor, and he was just a 'res' kid. I understood how frightened he was, and that's when I told him, 'From tonight, you're an actor." The shoot went well, and even better for young Joseph : he has recently signed with a major talent agency in Hollywood.
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Gabe Torres, Director of "Last Stand"
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 It's always interesting to find out where and how filmmakers find the inspiration for their work. For Akira Sasaki, who spooked audiences with his thriller 'behind,' it was the ticket he bought to the Short Shorts Film Festival two years ago. "I was impressed with the films I saw, and I thought, I'll give it a try. I always wanted to make a thriller, so here I am."
Another pair of filmmakers - who unfortunately were not in attendance in Tokyo - the joy of filmmaking is one that came into their lives very recently and was largely self-taught. Kenya Shimizu and Hiroki Motomori, a pair of air-traffic controllers, met last year, hit it off immediately, and set out to make a film. "We did most of our research on how to make a film by researching on the internet," Shimizu told the SSFF when he first premiered 'Ikesu,' in Los Angeles.
Clayton Jacobson, long a traveler to Japan - he has directed commercials for major Japanese car companies - came up with the idea for his moving improvisational film, 'Tanaka,' after befriending his lead actor on a job in Japan. While there was no script and the actors were non-professionals, Clayton said that the material was never too far from his or his actors' own experiences.
Also attending the Japan Shorts program were 'Suzuki' director Keichiro Kyuma and 'Eye' director Mipo O.
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"Hi, I'm the strange oyaji (lit. old guy) Nigel, from Scotland. "An appropriate introduction, perhaps, by Nigel Smith, producer of 'Cry for Bobo,' the tale of a clown, who, driven by grinding poverty, commits a daring but ultimately stupid robbery. Smith, in Tokyo to talk about this film in place of Director David Cairns, said that it was an attempt to put a new spin on an old theme common in Scottish films. "In Scotland, we make nothing but small films about poor people in poor towns in poor circumstances. So we decided to try a different approach by putting clowns in those circumstances. Lucky for us that the [BBC and the Scottish Shorts] felt the same about small films about poor people."They must have been enthusiastic – enough to jointly provide Nigel and his crew a budget of approximately 100,000 U.S. dollars."This is a miserable country's attempt to make a happy film,"Nigel mused.
Quite a contrast to Michel Cayla, who spent little more than 500 dollars to make his deeply moving 'Ten Minutes Before Dying,' a story based entirely on photos shot inside one of Jakarta's maximum security prisons. The five-minute film is comprised completely of photos that Michel collected and filmed directly without editing. "I paid for the film processing, that's it." Michel, who has lived in Asia, was inspired by the graffiti that prisoners wrote on the walls of death row. "Before dying, [a man] wrote a poem. If we knew what came after death, maybe we wouldn't create art." Michel is currently working with a composer and writer on his next project: an opera.
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 There is no doubt that one of the hardest things about making short films anywhere is raising the necessary funds for the budget. It means asking friends, organizations, neighbors, strangers, anyone, everyone, for a handout of some kind or other. But the task might be more challenging when you're making a film aboutcpoop. That's not really what 'Boomerang,' a hilarious comedy from Australia, is about. But it definitely was the inspiration. "I went out drinking with a group of friends one night and we talked about strange experiences," explained Tara Tucker, the film's writer and composer. "This story came up and suddenly we found ourselves talking about making it into a film." Everything up to the pivotal incident is true, she said, but after that, it was a matter of imagination. Tara, fluent in Japanese, told audiences that she's currently in Tokyo researching human rights and would love to someday make a film with a related theme. She pointed to the last short in Program D, 'The Ball,' from Mozambique, which takes a humorous approach to the serious dilemma of AIDS and misused condoms in Africa.
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Here's a question: what do visiting filmmakers at the Short Shorts Film Festival do with their spare time here in Tokyo? (Well, not all of their spare time...) They sweep the streets. Seriously. 'Sweepers' has been a SSFF tradition since its inception in 1999, when the city agreed to hang banners, free of charge, on lamp posts all along Omotesando in exchange for street sweeping by volunteers and visiting filmmakers.
On this Saturday morning, filmmakers joined festival staff and volunteers for an hour of sweeping the streets surrounding the festival venue. Despite the fact that city cleaners had already pretty much swept the area clean, the SSFF crew managed to find plenty of garbage that the city crew – a paid crew! – missed in their regular rounds. Filmmakers and volunteers will all complete two more rounds of sweeping before the festival comes to a close.
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 In part because of recent world events, and also because the SSFF received a plethora of outstanding films infused with themes dealing with world conflicts, a special War and Peace program highlighted some of this year's entries. Among those films: Gur Bentvitch's 'Status Quo,' an animated short about a Jewish boy and an Arab girl playing a video game that mirrors the political and military conflicts in their respective countries; and Pablo Berger's 'Mama,' a dark comedy about a troubled family in the year 2026.
While both directors' works make interesting, even strong statements about world conflicts, neither filmmaker originally set out to send a specific message to audiences. "It was never my intention to make a political film," Gur said, adding, "and I don't think I will ever again." Gur told the audience that reaction so far to his film has been mixed. "Half of the people who have seen it love it, the other half hate it." But he's resigned to his belief that a single film can really change people's perceptions about the world. "People have their ideas, their opinions already, before they see a film," he said.
Pablo, on the other hand, said that he made 'Mama' in 1988, about fifteen years ago. 'This was my first short film, ever. I made it with my heart, and I put everything I had into it. I wasn't thinking with my head that much. I wasn't thinking of this as a film with a theme such as war or peace.' But now, seeing his film, which he affectionately calls his baby, he feels its inclusion in the War and Peace program is appropriate. 'When I put it into a War and Peace context, it makes sense. I mean, it's about violence, which I think almost always starts in the family.' As for making a statement with 'Mama,' he said that in the end, this 'really isn't my film. It's your film. You make your minds up about what it means. You decide to interpret it yourselves.' Thanks, Pablo.
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 One of the most fascinating things about films is how they are made. While 'The Matrix' has generated a multitude of discussions and analyses about its meaning and its production, high budget blockbusters are not the only films that deserve a close look at how they were created.
'Short films are not created by just one person,' explained Geoffrey Starr, Editor in Chief of Premiere Magazine (Japan). This is in part why they are so fascinating to talk about. Starr moderated a discussion with Cinematographer Naoko Tajima ('It's Not Me, It's Not You') and co-directors Edgar San Juan and Ibon Antunano ('Una Bala'). Tajima said that because of budget constraints and scheduling, she shot her film in two and a half days with a skeleton crew. "There were basically just three of us, and the director did a lot of the sound on the set." Despite that, she said it was a pretty smooth shoot because of the careful planning and discussions she had with the director and producer weeks before production began.
During production in Spain, San Juan and Antunano felt fortunate to have a crew that grew from 15 to about 40 during production. But they had other challenges. "On the last day of production, someone opened the camera without properly removing the film magazine first, which screwed up (exposed) the negative film," San Juan said. "We tried to get the location back for another day but we couldn't get the permission."
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| JUN/06 |
Reception Party-Roppongi Hills
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The reception party of Short Shorts Film Festival in Tokyo took place in Roppongi Hills, a new place of interest here in Tokyo. Over 700 guests were invited to this party, including Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo.
The film makers from the official programs gathered from all over the world and they were presented on the stage at the reception party of Short Shorts Film Festival.
Then, the topic award was given to Shina Ringofs short film "Hyakuiromegane", and then her video message followed. The short film of Takashi Murakami, an artist who worked on the various art works in Roppongi Hills, were also shown. The reception party had become deeply condensed contents.
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