report

DJ John here.

For the Q & A's, from program A we had Roberto Maxwell who brought his short titled "Dekasegi". From program B Mauricio Osaki brought "Primavera" ("Springtime").

Roberto Maxwell's "Dekasegi" (a Japanese term for work far away from home or seasonal workers) was a subject he was very familiar with in that he came to Japan to attend University where saw 1st hand Brazilians who had come to work in Japan. He learned while going to school here that there were over 320,000 Brazilians of Japanese decent living here. He told us he wanted to depict the loneliness & identity crisises that they had to suffer through in order to send money home. Roberto was informative & passionate about the subject & film-making.

Festival director Seigo Tono was also able to bring San Paulo International Short Film Festival director Beth Sa Freire & Rio De Janeiro International Short Film Festival Director Ailton Franco Jr., both of who joined us for the Q & A's. Both of these festivals have been running for close to 20 years & are now very successful. It was interesting to hear that they too had little money & backing to start & submitted short films after the 1st couple years were around 200 & now they get over 3, 000 every year.