Rome is extremely COLD right now, although here it never snows (I wonder how many degrees there are in Moscow... and in Sydney?!)
Today it's my last working day before Christmas and お正月 holidays, I'll be back at my desk on January 4th. YAY!
Before leaving I'd like to share some picture with you, they're from the concert held here on December 7th.
The event, called BORDERLINE, was a cross-over between contemporary music and Noh Theatre, with the involvement of the Italian band Alter Ego (flute and two clarinets) and the Noh performer Ryoko Aoki. It was really a "borderline show" but the audience (around 120 people) had an enthusiastic reaction.
This month we had also a couple of visits from a senior high school and a junior high. The kids came to see the exhibition (the one I wrote about in my previous entry) and had a lot of fun making origami with my colleague Daniela. I took one picture but I have to put a black "mask" on the faces because of privacy laws. Here it is.
And that's all folks, sorry for the short entry but I have to finish some work before going to vacation.
I leave you a picture of the traditional Italian Christmas dessert. It's called PANETTONE and is a kind of sweet soft bread filled with raisins and candied fruit. It's DELICIOUS!
I would like to report about Japan Film Week (11.Dec -15.Dec) in Cairo and “NORIE- GAGA” (Duo of Furuya Director and Sato deputy director) debut in Cairo Jazz Club.
The theme of this year is“Spirit of Renaissance in Japan after World War”、We chose this theme as continued historic theme after “Hiroshima” in last year. After that a revolution broke out in Egypt and We suffered from earthquake in Japan. So it is not only “spirit” in the past, but also current important theme for both of us.
In line with the theme we showed “Best wishes for Tomorrow ”,”Cupola- Where the Furnaces glow”, “Always -sunset on the 3rd street”, “An Engineer`s Assistant”, “Children in the class room”, “Madam Onboro History of postwar Japan as told by a bar hostess".
Just before Japan film week, there was crash in Tahrir Square again and we had to close our office for a couple of days .So Publicity of Japan film week was not enough, but the 200 - seat theater had been full in the opening day.
We had a director of “Best wishes for Tomorrow ”,Takashi Koizumi as our guest for the opening day and after screening the film, we had talk show of Mr. Koizumi moderated by Dr.Essam Hamza, a professor at Department of Japanese language and Literature, Faculty of Art, Cairo University.
Because the film on the theme of Military court and most of the setting of scene were in a court or a prison, I was a bit afraid that Egyptian, who is so called “Dam hkfif (light blood ＝cheery)”、were able to take this quiet, serious story. However, such concern proved unfounded. People watched the film seriously and were deeply moved by the film.
We had talk show after screening. There were a lot of comments about the film and questions to the director such as “How were reaction of Japanese young people for this film?” ”How was feedback to this film from American?”
Egyptian audience was impressed by Mr.Koizumi when he answered for question from audiences politely. Mr.Koizumi was also glad that Egyptian audience watched film with enthusiasm and told he might come back to Egypt again for “Kurosawa film week” next year.
We showed three documentary films in the second day. After screening “An Engineer`s Assistant” which showed one day in the life on an engineer`s assistant of a steam train and “Children in the class room” which showed straggle of an elementary school teacher and nature behavior of the children, we had discussion moderated by young people from Egyptian NGO “MASTER PEACE”. There were a lot of comments about education of Japan and Egypt .It was lively discussion and sometimes it was hard to organize discussion! (It is common in Arab world...)
Egyptian`s most favorite film is “Always sunset on the 3rd street”. The film grabbed Egyptian`s attention from the beginning and they enjoyed film with weeping, laughing and clapping of hands. They said there was everything what Egyptian loved in this film! A lot of people came to see this film again with family.
こうしてカイロの日本映画週間は盛況のうちに幕を閉じました。
2“NORIE GAGA”Debut in Cairo Jazz Club！
12月20日、古屋所長と帰任を目前に控えた佐藤副所長によるデュオ“NORIE GAGA”が、カイロジャズクラブでエジプトのジャズトリオ”Amro Salah Trio”とゲストボーカリスト堀さん（JICA）とともにJ-POPコンサートを行いました。ジャズクラブに夜な夜な集うエジプトの音楽好きの前で、“NORIE GAGA”は「勝手にしやがれ」「島唄」「異邦人」「真夏の果実」「上を向いて歩こう」などのJ-POPの名曲を披露、会場を大いに盛り上げました。YOUTUBEにコンサートの一部をアップしたので、ご覧ください。
“NORIE- GAGA” (Furuya Director and Sato deputy director `s duo) featuring “Amro Salah Trio” (Egyptian Jazz Trio) and a guest vocalist MS.Hori from JICA had Japanese Pop music concert in Cairo jazz Club on 20th of December. They played best selected J-POP music such as “Kattute ni siyagare”, “Simauta”,”Ihojin”,”manatu no kajitu”,”Ue wo muite aruko”(famous as “Sukiyaki”).They brought a lot of excitement to Egyptian audience.
We uploaded some video of this concert on youtube. Please check it out.
There is no Christmas on 25th of Dec in Egypt.(Coptic Christmas is 9th of Jan.) and also no “OSHO GATU” on 1st of Jan. (Islamic new year was 26th of Nov.in 2011),but merry Christmas and a happy new year!!
After returning from the Head Office training trip back in September, the Arts & Culture Dept here has been engaged in full festival fever mode, preparing for our 15th Japanese Film Festival (you may have already read about from our intern Joey).
After a total of 109 screenings of Japanese cinema (both old and new films) over the 49 days, we are ecstatic to have attracted an audience just shy of 20,000 Australia-wide – a phenomenal result!
To commemorate the milestone year, we welcomed 5 Japanese guests to our Sydney and Melbourne events – Yutaka Takenouchi (Actor), Hideyuki Hirayama (Director), Hirotaka Matsune (Cinematographer), Tsuyoshi Inoue (Director) and Mitsuhiro Kyota (Producer) with Andrew Cornell (former Japanese Correspondent, Australian Financial Review) as a guest moderator.
To get a glimpse of all that action that happened at JFF15, please visit our facebook http://www.facebook.com/japanesefilmfest. There’s even a special album dedicated to Yutaka Takenouchi because his appearance was pure pandemonium! Well, actually, also because he’s waaay too handsome to select only one pic of him... ;)
Other highlights included our ‘Finding Hope through Films’ screenings (documentaries with an earthquake focus). From these sessions, we raised $497.00, all going towards Save the Children. The raised funds will support children in affected areas to resume everyday life activities such as initiating a school-based psychosocial support program for children, their parents and other childcare providers; child protection support and supplying children with school-related materials.
さて、もうひとつお届けしたい話題は、東日本大震災をテーマにしたドキュメンタリ映画「Finding Hope through Films」の上映についてです。この上映会開催を通じて、$497.00が寄せられ、その全額をSave the Childrenに寄付し、被災地の子どもたちが日常生活を取り戻すための支援に利用されることになります。支援内容としては、学校を中心とした子どもたち、その両親、両親以外の保護者のための精神面でのサポートプログラム、児童保護サポートプログラム、子どもたちに学校生活に必要な物資を提供するサポートプログラムなどがあります。
We are winding down now towards Christmas so its back to the office doing paperwork and preparing for events next year.
Until our next post, we would like to wish everyone a fantastic Christmas season and New Year! Leaving you with Christmas in Sydney - this pic is taken at St Mary's Cathedral. Love, Evon
