For Immediate Release:

February 3, 2001

Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC) is pleased to announce the winners of the 23^rd Tokyo Video Festival (TVF). The festival received 2,202 entries from 39 countries and regions, a new record high. After rigorous examination, the judges awarded prizes to 31 entries.

The awards ceremony for the 23^rd Tokyo Video Festival will be held on Saturday, February 3, 2001 at the "Park Tower Hall" in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Video Grand Prize: "Amanogawa" by Takae Kawase (22, student) of Shiga Prefecture. This video traces memories of a childhood summer watching fireflies with grandpa. Ms. Kawase used skillful editing and effective digital image processing to create a fairy tale-like depiction of her relationship with her late grandfather. The judges gave this work the highest marks of any in the contest because of its fusion of thematic content and technology to create an "attractive work worthy of the start of a new century."

The JVC Grand Prize: "How Shall We Live During the 21^st Century?. . .Wild Animals in Our Own Backyard" by Teruo Shimatsu (52, self-employed) of Miyagi Prefecture. The natural forest has been destroyed and replanted with coniferous trees, causing wild animals to descend into towns in search of food. Painstaking camera work captures the beauty of nature throughout the seasons, and the warm, friendly view that Mr. Shimatsu takes of the animals makes this a very convincing work.

Entries from people in their twenties again dominated this year, and there were many submissions that explored new areas of video-making with original perspectives and sensibilities. The spread of digital video equipment and easy-to-use editing machines and production software have brought advanced functions within the grasp of beginners and veterans alike, creating more varied and interesting compositions and visual expressions. Entries included original perspectives on politics and society, studies of the video-maker's family, and graphic arts studies utilizing animation, computer graphics and image processing. The Tokyo Video Festival highlights the richness and variety of video expression.

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Younger contestants are accounting for an increasingly large percentage of Festival entries. This year, 5.5% of contestants were in their teens, and 35.0% in their twenties, putting more than 40% of all contestants in the "youth" category. Contestants in their twenties won 13 out of the 31 prizes.

"Amanogawa," winner of the Video Grand Prize, is one example. The video was created by Ms. Takae Kawase, a 22 year-old fine art student in Shiga prefecture. "When I was a young girl," she says, "my grandfather took me to the 'Amanogawa' River to see the fireflies. He told me, 'In the old days, there were millions of fireflies that played on the surface of the river. It was like a dream.' Grandfather eventually started wandering off at nights...When he was on his deathbed, he called for me, held my hand and said, 'We've got to go see the fireflies.' This year's ' Firefly Festival' will be starting soon."

The judges were unanimous in their praise for the video. Mr. Nobuhiko Obayashi commented, "It's a beautiful work, full of youthful, fresh perspectives. It even made me jealous."

The JVC Grand Prize, which is the grand prize for video communication awards, went to Mr. Teruo Shimatsu (52) of Shichigashuku Town in Miyagi prefecture for his video "How Shall We Live During the 21^st Century?. . .Wild Animals in Our Own Backyard"

Says Mr. Shimatsu, "Environmental destruction is coming even to my little town tucked away in the mountains. The broadleaf forest, with all its bounties, was home to any number of animals, but it has been replaced by coniferous trees that are better suited to lumber. Monkeys, bears, antelope, foxes, raccoons, civets... All sorts of wild animals are coming down into town. They're considered pests because they destroy fields and houses, but I think we need to listen to what they're trying to tell us." This work was a compilation of beautiful video records of the nature and animals of the Zao foothills taken over a 20-year period of time.

It was highly evaluated; Mr. Makoto Shiina stated in his comment, "This sustained record is a warning bell for the future. The fact that it could be created at all is one of the achievements of this excellent recording device called the VTR."

Approximately 70% of the entries in this year's video festival were taken with digital video camcorders (DVC) (statistics calculated from equipment data provided by entrants). Compact, lightweight DVCs enable even beginners to take clear, quality videos. Meanwhile, the increasing availability of low-cost personal computers equipped with a high-capacity hard disks and digital editing functions brings a variety of sophisticated editing techniques within the grasp of amateur video makers.

This has paved the way for increasing number of videos that attempt to enter the realm of graphic arts. One example is "Until 5:30 a.m.," a prize-winning video submitted by David Ahuja (21, director, U.S.A.). Judge Hakudo Kobayashi commented, "This video was not just an application of film techniques, it was a multi-layered collage of photographs, text and graphics. I think it should be termed 'graphic design' for video."

Video provides an easily accessible medium for recording and expressing one's life and ideas. Family continues to be a major theme in entries. "Amanogawa," the winner of the Video Grand Prize, for example, depicts the relationship between the video maker and her grandfather.

In the past, videos dealing with aging, care for bedridden family members, and the independence of the disabled tended to be heavy and dark. More and more, however, video makers are taking a brighter, more positive, more accepting attitude towards these subjects. Says Judge Mari Christine, "The 'disabled' and 'weak' are no longer something special. Society has begun to acknowledge and take care of them."

One of the things that makes video so interesting is that it enables the creator to put anything he can imagine onto tape. Advanced technology and its increasing availability have only helped this.

"Auto Mommy" (SOVAT THEATER, Kyoto) is a clay animation feature about an "automated child-rearing machine" and the loveless child-care it provides. This ironic video asks the viewer just how lazy people can become.

"Rapszodia in Fish Minor" (FUGU & CHIPS, UK) is a short animated feature that uses special techniques to tell the story of a man who eats his meals to the music on the radio and the world of unknown fish and escargot. "X'mas Tower" (Photography Club, Fukakusa Junior High School, Kyoto) is an exercise in video storytelling using cardboard paper craft. It tells the tale of a young scientist involved in the development of a gigantic robot and the woman he loves. Members of the Photography Club spent more than one year completing the project.

There were also large number of works that took a more serious view of the insides of society and human beings and asked penetrating questions about them. "PAS" (Hasan Karacadag, 24, artist, Turkey) was a contender for the Video Grand Prize until the very end. It uses symbolic techniques to depict the Turkish hinterlands with their severe natural and social environments. The eyes of the men as they stare off into sandstorms and nothingness, the eyes, the eyes... The listless children, the blood pouring out of the neck of a turkey... As the images pileup upon each other, one feels how very closed off the Islamic world can be. This work contains a message of an inescapable despair.

"Teoria de la Deriva"(A Theory of Drifting; Gustavo Galuppo, 29, video producer, Argentina) is a documentary film tracing the history of the video-maker's country as it drifts about with no destination apparent. The video uses news footage and original images to recreate the past, highlighting the political confusion that plunged people into pain and despair and the crimes of military suppression. This work uncovers for us the screams of the nameless people buried in the shadows of official history, screams that can only be heard faintly from the other side of a deep, dark mist.

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• Nobuhiko Obayashi, Film Director
• Hakudo Kobayashi, Video Artist and Professor of Seian University of Art and Design
• Susumu Hani, Film Director
• Makoto Shiina, Novelist
• Naoto Takenaka, Actor and Film Director (A guest judge for the 23^rd TVF)
• Mari Christine, Cross-Cultural Communicator (A guest judge for the 23^rd TVF)
• Shigeru Kawata, Video Artist (A guest judge for the 23^rd TVF)
• Hiroaki Sato, Video Artist
• Shingo Kawata, Associate Director of Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC).

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