Screening report 10.05.2009

I had a screening on last Sunday at Kiryuu-sha, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo. Kiryuu-sha is a second-handbook shop and cafe. The screening was organised by Masa-san who watched my film at Naked Loft.

The owner of Kiryuu-sha decorated the shop by himself. I've heard it took for a year to make it. The outside and inside of the shop are made from woods. The atmosphere is very relaxing.

The outside of Kiryuu-sha

When opening the door, you can find loads of books in the shop. They are not just a collection of random books. This shop's sheme is "counter culture", so you can find many interesting rare books here!

The owner put the white cloth over the books, then the venue turned into the theatre!

Also, this shop has a loft. It's shame I don't have a picture. Five or six people were on the loft because there was a study event before the screening.

When the screening starts, over 20 people came to see the film. People sat on the chairs, floor, and even on the loft!

After the screening, Masa-san and I started the post-screening talk. Normally, the post-screening talk is about an hour includes some Q&A from audiences. My film itself is 97 minutes, so this is the moderate length of the talk.

However, on the day, so many people joined the talk, and almost everyone spoke about the film, questions, their activities, their concerns, and so on! And the talk continued over two hours!!! Topics are from the difference between the impact of being arrested in Japan and UK, anti-war movement, war and poverty, Food in UK, student union, Korean conscription, etc.

I think, if you say "post-screening talk", people would imagine the director or actors speak about the film. But for me, I wasn't familiar to the peace movement before making the film, and I still don't know much about the peace campaign in Japan. So, I really appreciated people told me about it after the screening. I think "film" is just a tool to communicate/unite people and it is good.

We finished the post-screening talk about 11pm, then about 10 people went to the pub. We had a very good time there for drinking and eating. Then, someone asked "What time is the last train?"

....I didn't care about the time at all. But the day was Sunday and I'm living a bit far away from Shimokitazawa. Someone said the last train for Shinjyuku was coming in minutes, and my train (for other direction) was already over!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was still optimistic, and I thought there was a train from Shinjyuku. So, then I went to Shinjyuku with other people. But I realised there was no way for me to go home from Shinjyuku!! The last train terminated at Musashi-Koganei which was still very far from my flat....

When I lived in London, there was 24h bus service, so I didn't have to care about missing the last train...but now I have to adapt myself to the Japanese system!

I arrived at Musashi-Koganei and went to the 24h restaurant there. I had to stay until the first train at 4.30 am. I was completely worn out in the end!!