#006
Sundance Film Festival 2016
※日本語の後に英語版が続きます。English follows Japanese.
毎年1月に米国ユタ州パークシティで開催されるインディペンデント映画の祭典、サンダンス映画祭(*1)。私がサンダンス映画祭のことを最初に知ったのは、高校生の時に雑誌『CUT』(*2)で読んでいた映画ライター/映画監督、小西未来さん(*3)の連載『サンダンスへの道』を通じてでした。2014年、米国在住を機に初めて足を運び、上映後のQ&Aを通じた親密さと、世界中から集まった様々な声に先入観なく丁寧に耳を傾ける懐の深さの虜になりました。以来、毎年観客として訪問しています。
また、サンダンス映画祭にmoonbow cinemaとして参加することも試してみました。会場で出会う人々と、これまでの一観客から踏み込んだ映画人としての会話が出来ればと思い、私なりの「作品」であるmoonbow cinemaをご案内する英文のDMを携え、東京から現地に向かいました。上映会場へ移動するシャトルバスの中や、開場を待つ行列の中で会話が始まると、moonbow cinemaのDMを渡すと、趣旨の似たイベントや、上映場所と作品の組み合わせなど、前年までとは格段に会話を広げることができ、自分がサンダンスにより近くなれた嬉しさを感じました。特に、ジェイソン・リュウ監督との会話は、その後の第3回moonbow cinema上映会の内容を決定付けるほどのインパクトがありました。
サンダンスで日本を舞台にした作品を見つけると、意識的に鑑賞するようにしています。作品に対する観客の反応や製作側とのQ&Aを通じて、日本を全く違う視点から捉え、何が実は当たり前ではないか、変か、美しいか、等に気づく非常に興味深い時間だからです。2016年に選んだ作品はX JAPANのドキュメンタリー『WE ARE X』。リュウ監督とは、たまたま席が近く、上映後にロビーで日本人の死生観について『永遠の僕たち』にも触れながらお話をし、リュウ監督がなぜ『永遠の僕たち』や『The Free World』といった作品を生み出したのか、背景を垣間見ることが出来ました。
Sundance Film Festival (*1) is held in Park City, UT, during January by focusing on independent and diversified movies. I first learned about Sundance Film Festival through a series of story, Road to Sundance, published on movie magazine, CUT (*2) . The story was written by Mirai Konishi (*3) , a filmmaker and critic. In 2014, I joined Sundance for the first time by taking advantage of living in the United States. Immediately I was captivated by the inclusiveness of Sundance through Q&A sessions at screenings. I was relieved to see how Sundance Institute listens to every voice without any cliché. Since 2014, every year I go back to the festival.
Year 2016 was the first year after I launched moonbow cinema. I decided to bridge two activities, screening event in Japan and visiting Sundance in US, to better each other. First, I was interested in writing an article about Sundance for Japanese audience to promote Sundance and moonbow cinema. I looked for the media who is interested in the activity of moonbow cinema and Sundance. I contacted UPLINK (*4) who was most supportive to put invitation cards for the past moonbow cinema screening events and run the web magazine, Web DICE. UPLINK kindly replied this time as well. I was more motivated to publish an article (*5) and finished with more than ten thousand words. I clearly remember myself kept writing during my flight back to Japan.
To attend Sundance, I set my mind as a founder of moonbow cinema. I brought an introduction card of moonbow cinema written in English to initiate deeper conversations with people who I met at Sundance. I gave the card to people who I had a chat in the shuttle or in the line to enter the theater. The card made conversations more interesting. Some told me about screening events with the similar concept with moonbow cinema. Others gave me ideas of a combination of a film and a location. I really felt that I was one step deeper to Sundance community. Especially a conversation with Jason Lew left the biggest impact on me and the following screening of moonbow cinema.
Every year, more than one hundred feature films are premiered at Sundance. The information to choose which film to see is really limited to profiles of production members or summary of story because most of films are world premiere. Under this condition, the first film I chose to see for Sundance 2016 was The Free World (*6) because of the profile of director/writer Jason Lew. Lew previously wrote Restless (*7) directed by Gas Van Sant and played a main role at All God’s Children Can Dance (*8) based on the short story written by Haruki Murakami. I intuitively felt that I somehow share the same point of view with Lew. The Free World was the first movie I saw during Sundance 2016. My excitement to be at Sundance was at the peak after arriving from Japan that year. The film fulfilled my expectation and made me really confident that to come to Sundance even from Japan was right decision. After the screening, I had a chance to talk with Lew at the lobby of the theater by presenting moonbow cinema card. Later that day, I met Lew again in the screening of WE ARE X (*9) . I was so happy that he recognized me thanks to moonbow cinema.
At Sundance, I intentionally see films set in Japan. It’s a nice occasion to observe Japan from outside through the reaction of audience or Q&A with production members. I’m often able to recognize what is actually not normal, average, beautiful, strange, etc. In 2016, I chose a documentary film WE ARE X about X Japan, a Japanese rock band. Lew happened to sit close to myself at the screening and after the film we talked about Japanese traditional view on death and suicide by referring to Restless. Through our conversation I could learn more about how his stories The Free World and Restless were born.
Two months later from Sundance, in March 2016, I was planning to host the third moonbow cinema screening event. I decided to add new contents to the event based on conversations I had at Sundance 2016. (To be continued.)
information
(*1)
サンダンス映画祭
Sundance Film Festival
https://www.sundance.org/festivals/
(*2)
雑誌『CUT』
株式会社ロッキング・オンが1989年12月から
発行している月刊映画批評・インタビュー誌
“CUT”
CUT is a monthly cinema magazine published by
Rockin’on since December 1989 in Japan.
http://www.rockinon.co.jp/product/magazine?genre=cut
(*3)
小西未来
日本の映画ライター、翻訳家、映画監督。
日本映画ペンクラブ会員、ハリウッド外国人記者クラブ会員
Mirai Konishi
Japanese filmmaker and critic, an active member
of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association
(*4)
アップリンク
東京都渋谷区宇田川町37-18
Uplink
37-18 Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
http://www.uplink.co.jp/
(*5)
「Amazon12億円、Netflix6億円の買付が
話題となった2016年サンダンス映画祭」
2016年2月16日掲載
Article by moonbow cinema about Sundance 2016
(Japanese only)
http://www.webdice.jp/dice/detail/5026/
(*6)
『The Free World』
(2016年、米国)
監督・脚本:ジェイソン・リュウ
出演:ボイド・ホルブルック、エリザベス・モス、
オクタヴィア・スペンサー、他
The Free World
(2016, US)
Director and Writer: Jason Lew
Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Boyd Holbrook,
Octavia Spencer and others
(*7)
『永遠の僕たち』
(2011年、米国)
監督:ガス・ヴァン・サント
脚本:ジェイソン・リュウ
出演:ヘンリー・ホッパー、ミア・ワシコウスカ、加瀬亮、他
Restless
(2011, US)
Director: Gus Van Sant
Writer: Jason Lew
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Henry Hopper, Ryo Kase and others
(*8)
『神の子どもたちはみな踊る』
(2007年、米国)
監督:ロバート・ログバル
脚本:スコット・コフィ
原作:村上春樹
出演:ジョアン・チェン、ジェイソン・リュウ、ソニア・キンスキー、他
All God’s Children Can Dance
(2007, US)
Director: Robert Logevall
Writer: Scott Coffey
Original short story: Haruki Murakami
Cast: Joan Chen, Jason Lew, Sonja Kinski and others
(*9)
『WE ARE X』
(2016年、英国・米国・日本)
監督:スティーブン・キジャク
WE ARE X
(2016, UK, US and Japan)
Director: Stephen Kijak
text & photo
moonbow cinema ビジュアルデザイン:aya(グラフィックデザイナー)
moonbow cinema images designed aya, Graphic Designer