In December 2016, I hosted fifth moonbow cinema screening event. During this screening, an accident happened due to my mistake and a kind reaction of audience made this event a memorable one.

I chose The Boat That Rocked (*1) , or Pirate Radio in US, to show. The plot is set in UK in 1966 and the story reaches climax on New Year’s Day of 1967. My hope was that audience would get cheered up to spend the rest of December 2016 by watching this film.

The characters of The Boat That Rocked are charming DJs and crews of pirate radio station, Radio Rock. During 1960s, although the rock bands such as The Beatles were getting popular, BBC, the only radio station in UK at that time, was permitted to play rock songs for maximum 45 minutes. To overcome the limitation, Radio Rock took the role to air rock music for 24 hours a day from the North Sea where the regulation did not apply. The whole sailing ship was equipped as radio station as well as common living space for DJs and crews. The movie starts with the arrival of 17 years old boy to this ship after kicked out from high school due to drug and smoking. The story evolves by the rivalry among DJs and the fight with politicians who try to eliminate pirate radio stations.

Most of The Boat That Rocked scenes are set on the boat. As the screening location fit to this film, I thought of places attached to ships and ocean. I wanted audience to experience the breeze from the ocean on their way to the screening location to be connected to the movie. I started searching places in Tokyo then to Chiba or Kanagawa, along the Pacific coast. The location chosen was BUKATSUDO (*2) , an event space at the former dockyard in Yokohama, Kanagawa. From the entrance, we can see the sailing ship, Nippon Maru. Since a tall mast plays an important role in the film, the view of Nippon Maru was a big reason of my decision.

On the day of screening event, I gave opening introduction mentioning events happened in 1966 and the area where Radio Rock seemed to sail. Once the movie started, audience laughed in multiple scenes with charming characters.

It was around 30 minutes before the ending of the film. Suddenly, a notification with a sound appeared on the screen saying Your Battery is Low. It was my fault that I forgot the laptop as DVD player to plug in. Surprisingly, the audience got warmly laughed by the notification. Also, it was fortunate that the scene played was humorous one. At the moment when I saw the message, I was completely lost but the laugh of audience brought me back to fix the battery. Ultimately, the film was played until the ending scene, New Year’s Day of 1967.

After the screening, a few attendees, including the first-time member, stayed to help me cleaning up the location. This made me wonder why they are so kind regardless of the accident. I was ready to be blamed for the mistake, but audience reacted in opposite way. Their kindness gave me confidence to continue moonbow cinema.

After the event, it was January, the season of Sundance Film Festival. Year 2017 was my fourth Sundance in a row. That year, Sundance was intense due to President Trump’s inauguration during the festival. For me, it was the year when I thought of summer in Japan in snowy Park City after meeting with a Japanese director and his film. (To be continued.)