trailer trash

I recently caught British director Sean McAllister’s impressive documentary Japan: A Story of Love and Hate. Spending two years in Japan, McAllister set out to unveil the often hidden social realities of Japanese culture. Wanting to breakaway from the highly glamourised cinematic depictions of Tokyo, McAllister’s investigation led him to a small rural town and the most unusual of love stories, one which highlights the financial crisis at the heart of the world’s second richest nation.

Love can't payYoshie's and Naoki's bills

Naoki, 56, had it all in Japan’s boom days; he ran a business, drove a desirable car and lived in an executive home. Then, in the early 1990s, Japan’s economy crashed, and Naoki lost everything, including his marriage.

Salvation of sorts came in the form of  new girlfriend Yoshie, who saved him from homelessness by letting him live with her in her tiny one-room apartment. The only jobs Naoki can find are part-time and poorly paid. Three simultaneous employers and 15 hour days are the norm.

For Yoshie, things aren’t a lot better. Every evening, she heads to a seedy chat bar to work as a hostess. Flirting with intoxicated married men was never Yoshie’s idea of career fufillment

Beneath the nation’s luxurious exterior, a new population can’t make ends meet; Yoshie and Naoki have become members of Japan’s new ‘working poor’ .

A Story of Love and Hate delivers a counter-intuitive  insight into contemporary Japan - it’s one of the biggest eye-openers on the country I’ve ever seen. It also doesn’t pretend that Japan has any more answers than the rest of the world in how to solve the complexities of the modern world.

jtd title Japan ; Searching for the Dream is an equally insightful dissection of modern Japanese society, documenting what the people think of themselves and their country in the 21st century. Like McAllister’s doc, the film explores the sacrifices Japan has made to reward the few while leaving many of its once happy population on the poverty line. Watch it in full here.

Last week Facebook hosted a ‘Social Screening’ of doc Earth Days, opening a new portal for documentary film lovers all over the world. Not that unusual you may think, but the streamed event took place more than a week before the film’s upcoming premiere on PBS’ American Experience strand on April 19th. Without any kind of fanfare, this is the first time a major broadcaster has premiered a full-length documentary on the web before its scheduled terrestrial debut.

Will Earth Days present a new future for film?

So will the success of Earth Days finally tip digital film distribution into the mainstream?

Both Facebook’s ‘Social Screening’ and PBS’ premiere are part of Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary on April 22, 2010. The film traces the origins of the modern environmental movement and the people who launched it -  from its beginnings in the 1950s, to its peak in 1970 with the first Earth Day.

The online screening was the brainchild of American social media company Brand Networks who cited it as “an experiment” that hopes to find viewers who don’t typically watch PBS. Facebook members were able to view the 102-minute movie for free by installing Facebook’s new ’social screening application’ which employs a video player.

Following the screening, Facebook also hosted a live chat about the doc in real time with viewers and with Oscar-winning director Robert Stone.

Figures of how many users actually turned up, logged in, installed the software and finally streamed the doc live have yet to be announced. The Earth Day’s Facebook fan page may only hold 19,000 members, and film distributors have their eyes set on a future with millions watching such events. .

But if the figures are successful, it seems likely that TV broadcasters may become less scared of going online, potentially marketing films they never would have considered for their traditional “offline” audiences because of limited budgets and even more limited commissioning mentalities. It’s already happened in the video game industry, reinvigorating a community which was being crushed by Hollywood-style genre expectations.

History, as they say,  has a way of repeating itself.

The line-up for HotDocs 2010 has been announced. The programme will feature an impressive 166 titles from a total of  41 countries in its diverse catalogue, making the line-up one of the strongest in this year’s festival circuit. This year it’s Hot Docs’ 17th birthday and the array of style and subject matter is better than ever.

I’m particularly looking forward to the Ripping Reality series, a retrospective of ten ground-breaking documentaries. Amonst them is the acclaimed  American Movie (1999)  -  which I’m anticipating includes  Anvil-esque bizarre and lovable characters. Set in Wisconsin,  it’s the story of a filmmaker’s  struggles, financial ruin and spiritual crisis he endures in order to fulfil his life long wish to make a horror movie.

Long day at the supermarket for filmmakers Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda

Also being commended for its achievement in the documentary genre is jtd title Czech Dream (2004). Filmmakers Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak set out to explore the psychological and manipulative powers of consumerism by creating an ad campaign for something that doesn’t exist - a hypermarket.

The film is both humorous and provocative in exploring the effects of consumerism on a post-communist society. Catch the film in full on jtd here.

Our sister distribution channel MercuryMedia will be showing titles The Invention of Dr. NakaMats at the festival which takes place from April 29th to May 9th. This is a fun and charming portrait of the iconic Japanese inventor, Dr.Yoshiro NakaMats on the brink of his 80th birthday, force of nature fully intending to live until the age of 144. NakaMats also boasts over 3,000 patents to his name. Danish filmmaker Kaspar Asrtrup Schröeder takes us through the eccentric world of the great man, with hilarious consequences.

Introducing inventor and celebrity Dr. NakaMats

Also showing at the festival from MercuryMedia’s spring catalogue is American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein. Filmmakers David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier document the travels and tribulations of controversial American academic Norman Finklestien. A devoted son of holocaust survivors and critic of Israel and US Middle-Eastern policy, Finkelstein has been at the centre of many political battles.

For more about the great range of fun and though-provoking films, you can browse the full programme of Hot Docs 2010 here.