Last weekend, Jitensha picked up two awards:  Prix du Jury Jeune (Youth Jury Prize) from the Brussels Short Film Festival and the Golden Reel (Best Short Film) at Visual Communication’s Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

The latter is especially meaningful because Leilani and I have been attending their festival since we were in our first year of film school.  It’s a place that showcases the best in Asian and Asian American cinema.  There are so many great Asian American works that are produced each year; sadly, many of them don’t get the recognition that they deserve, so festivals like LAAPFF have become an essential venue to celebrate the Asian American experience.

Visual Communications is an organization that I highly respect.  At their filmmaker’s breakfast, the first two people I met were Academy Award winners– and they were Asian American.  VC is close to many people’s hearts because of how they have nurtured and supported generations of Asian American filmmakers.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, Jitensha received two awards (best mixed video and best overall faculty video) from the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts in April.  At the awards ceremony in Las Vegas, they announced a new award that they were going to give to the best faculty submission, which ranged from such disciplines as screenwriting, audio, interactive media, documentary and video.  This inaugural award, which is called the Chair’s Award, was given to Jitensha.  Leilani and I were shocked.  It was amazing to be given this award by my fellow media educators from across the country.

In June, we have the Talent 1 Media Film Festival (LA), the Bicycle Film Festival (NYC),  the Arcipelago Film Festival (Rome, Italy) and Images That Matter Film Festival (Ethiopia).  We also just learned that Jitensha will screen at the Hawaii International Film Festival in October.  We got rejected from Hawaii last year, but the programming director Anderson Le saw Jitensha at LAAPFF and invited it to screen this year.  Just goes to show that anything can happen.

We continue to be grateful for all these things.  And congratulations to the team– the Biola students, Paul Nethercott and everyone at Studio Re:, Yu Shibuya and Yugo Saso.

bea-faculty-award2-iphone-cell

In the short drama Bicycle, we meet Mamoru (Yugo Saso), a bitter, socially isolated introvert; lonely at home, unliked at work.

A drunken colleague punches him out at a bar, creating a shame spiral that causes him to quit his job.

Luckily, he has his trusty commuter bike. Only he doesn’t.

Parts of it go missing. He leaves an annoyed note to the thief, as a seat, wheel and other bits disappear, night after night. The thief responds and signs his letters “God.”

And on the day the next to last part disappears, Mamoru gets a letter — “This is the world in which you live,” God writes. Then he tells the misanthrope where the various parts of his bike are. He must visit a single mom, a street vendor (who talks him into taking over the blanket where he spreads his wares), a beach comber and others, meeting, interacting with and charming the new owner out of the parts they now possess.

Dean Yamada’s short film is warm and charming, with a mystique that is uniquely Japanese or at least how others perceive the Japanese — where social order and teamwork are king.  I could certainly see this as a longer, feature length exploration of seeing the world and yourself through others’ eyes.

This is the theater that seats 1400 people.

Leilani and I had the privilege of traveling to France during the first week of February to screen Jitensha at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. There is a reason why this festival is considered the most important event for short films in the world. Not only do buyers and distributors come here to do business, festival programmers from some of the best short film festivals make the trip yearly as do audiences from all over Europe. They all descend upon this beautiful city to celebrate the art of the short film.

Contrary to what many Americans think about the French, the people of Clermont-Ferrand (as well as Paris) were extremely kind and accommodating. I felt privileged to be a part of this culture that has such a high regard for the short film format. The audiences were awe-inspiring. The sheer number of cinephiles waiting to get into screening after screening was jaw dropping.

On the night that we arrived, Jitensha screened in the Cocteau Theater, which seats 1400. The theater was filled nearly to capacity. When our program ended, there was a ridiculously long line waiting to get into the theater to see the next program. It was like this at every venue around the city, even at the most awkward times. We tried to see a shorts program at 10:15pm at Centre Jaude and about 150 people were turned away– many of whom were visibly upset. Fortunately, Leilani and I waited until the crowds dispersed and were allowed to sneak in since we didn’t mind sitting on the floor.

Thankfully, Jitensha was well received in France. On top of that, so many fellow filmmakers enjoyed our film—one even said that Jitensha is the kind of film that makes him want to be a better person. It was an honor to get to know these accomplished filmmakers from around the world. I also had the opportunity to meet a handful of filmmakers who are based in Berlin and who want to help on our next project, which shoots in Berlin this summer.

I am continually grateful for these festivals that Jitensha is getting into. God’s grace never ceases to amaze me. Next up we have the Sedona International Film Festival (late February), the Davis Film Festival (March 13^th), the Method Fest (late March), the Florida Film Festival (mid-April) and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (one of my personal favorites). We also picked up another award given by my peers in the academic world—the Broadcast Educators Association. I will be given the Best of Fest award in a ceremony at this year’s conference in Las Vegas.

Thanks for continuing to follow our journey.

Here’s a blurb from the Daily Variety article on the 50 unmissable festivals: “The ‘Cannes of short films’ overruns a university town in the shadow of active volcanoes, attracting such devoted audiences that the closing ceremonies are performed three times in a row in order to seat 4,500 spectators. The hyphenated city considers the event so vital that it built a permanent year-round headquarters for the programmers. The winter fest’s accompanying market is a marvel of organization.”

After doing a little research, I found out that my alma mater, USC, has had one film screen in competition at Clermont-Ferrand in the past eight years. With over 2,000 film submissions to this year’s International Competition alone, Jitensha is continuing to defy the odds and pave the way for future generations at Biola. Seventy-eight films were chosen from fifty-nine countries.

Congrats to Team Jitensha, who put their hearts into making this film, and thanks be to God for allowing Jitensha to continue to travel.

For more info, please visit: http://www.clermont-filmfest.com/index.php?m=134

This was an incredible weekend on many levels.  The festival flew me out to Indianapolis, greeted me at the airport with my own stretch limo and put me up in a beautiful little hotel.  On the second floor of the hotel was a hospitality suite/filmmaker’s lounge, stocked with amenities.   It was here that I got to spend time with like-minded filmmakers, who had traveled far to be at the festival.

I’ve been to a lot of festivals and screened with countless films that I abhorred.  This was the first festival in which I loved all of the films I screened with.  It was truly an honor to be included with the other Crystal Heart Award winners.  In addition to screening with great films, I had the privilege of actually getting to know the illustrious filmmakers behind the short films, which included Irene Taylor Brodsky (Oscar nominee for The Final Inch), Gregg Helvey (Student Academy Award winner for Kavi), Jeremiah Crowell (Sundance official selection for Small Collection), Daniel Harrich (Student Emmy winner for Acholiland), Melody George (Marbles with Thoreau) and Christian Sonderby Jepsen (Side by Side).

With this kind of company, you can imagine my shock when Jitensha was announced as the winner of the Vision Award for Best Short Film.   Here’s a link to the award ceremony (the short film award is announced at about the 21st minute):

http://www.vimeo.com/7223474

As much as I was hoping to win this award, I was stunned when the rambling lady finally said the word “bicycle.”  Since I had forgotten to thank Leilani during my Crystal Heart award speech, I was grateful to have this opportunity to thank her because I know I would not be where I am today without her.

I accept the award on behalf of our entire team.  Because it was a collaboration from the beginning, it is clear to me that creating Jitensha was not a one man show.  The story began with a brilliant idea by Yu Shibuya and ended with notes from Leilani that changed the entire structure of the film.  It included tireless hours of planning on both sides of the Pacific.  We could have never done it without the support of those from Studio Re: and Biola University.

The people of Indianapolis, the staff of the Heartland Film Festival and my fellow filmmakers all made this a truly moving experience that I will keep with me forever.  Whereas the Venice Film Festival was driven by the industry and star power, Heartland was about the filmmakers, audiences and interaction between the two.  We make films because we want to share them.  Heartland was the perfect place to be able to do that because their audiences were hungry for good stories.  It is encouraging to have your life’s work be embraced; by the end of the weekend, I felt so incredibly affirmed as an artist and a person.

Now it’s time to continue on this journey with a renewed sense of purpose.  Jitensha screens at the Starz Denver Film Festival next weekend.  Please stay tuned.

The Jitensha Crew at the Venice Film Festival

Being on the Lido (a small resort island south of the city) was amazing.  The festival couldn’t have been at a more beautiful time of the year.  The town was taken over by the festival– statues of lions with wings dotted the landscape and large red facades were erected, which added to the glamor of the event.  Before our screening, the cast and crews of each film in our program were ushered into the theater, where we met the applause of the audience.  There were introductions in Italian, which sounded so formal (and cool), and our film looked good playing in its new DCP format.

Of the twenty short films in competition at the Venice Film Festival, I believe we had the largest crew in attendance.  In all, seven students (Kyle, Skylar, Andrew, Daniel, Christian, Allan, and Stephanie), lead actor Yugo Saso, writer Yu Shibuya and producer Paul Nethercott made the trip to Italy along with my wife Leilani and I.  The fact that seven students found a way to get there amazes me.  It shows that they take ownership of the film and are proud of their work.  Jitensha truly was a collaborative effort from the beginning of pre-production all the way to the premiere.

On our last night together as a team, we had dinner at a little place overlooking the sea called Caribe.   Yugo gave a toast, saying that one year ago, he didn’t know any of us.  Now, he’s seen us in Japan, the U.S. (for the premiere) and Italy.  The students commented that they have seen Yugo on three continents.  It is amazing that one year ago Jitensha did not exist, but now through our determination (and the will of God), it is a film—a piece of art—that stands on its own.  And not just that, it has been the vehicle that has brought us together and sent us around the world.  Wow.

The films that we screened with were, for the most part, dark in theme.  There were films about murder, incest and adultery; there were also films that left us completely dumbfounded.  I’m happy to say that Jitensha seemed to stand out like a sore thumb because it was so hopeful and lighthearted in nature.  The festival programmers went as far as to call it a comedy, much to the dismay of the students.  Because most of the other films were so tragic, it made sense that anything with a glimmer of hope would be called a comedy.  It was truly an honor to be in the festival, especially after seeing the kinds of films the festival generally chooses to showcase.

I had the chance to speak with one of the pre-selection committee members named Stefano, who told me that there were in fact 1600 short film submissions—all of which he viewed.  Upon his first screening of Jitensha, he immediately knew that this was a film that was going to be in the festival.  We are still in awe that our little film could be part of something so big.

Next up we have the Heartland Film Festival.  I will try to post from Indianapolis.  Thanks for reading.

With this invitation to Venice, it is incredibly empowering to know that we can make a beautiful film with very limited equipment and a crew of undergraduate students. You no longer have to shoot on film stock. It is about the story and how it is told. Like Francis Ford Coppola said about the little fat girl in Ohio, it is about the art form, not the so-called professionalism of movies. We worked hard as a crew to make this happen and I thank God for allowing us to reap the harvest.

Now, it’s onward to Venice for our September 8th official screening. Stay tuned– I’ll try to post some photos.

It was also amazing to have our lead actor, Yugo Saso, fly out from Tokyo to attend the premiere.  He is one of the most gracious people I have ever met and he was genuinely happy to reunite with our crew.

The film is officially done and ready to submit to film festivals.  Please continue to follow us as we take this journey with “Jitensha.”

Special thanks to James and Anderson at Ming Island Design for creating this amazing site.  Also, to Gregg Katano at Hi-Ground Media for their post-production services and to Jon Berkowitz for putting us in touch with them.  And to Paul Nethercott and his team at Studio Re:.  So many people have given so much to make this project happen– we are grateful.