News
It has been decided to put count down boards in 12 places, including Chatan Town, Ginowan City and Naha City (including stations on the Yui rail), with unveiling ceremonies of the boards at 3 places on January 29th 2014, 50 days before the 6th Okinawa International Movie Festival.
At the Naha city ceremony, Garage Sale were the guest emcee, with stage appearances by Takeshi Onaga (Mayor of Naha City), Emi Iha and Yuko Sakuda (Naha City Campaign Ladies), Hiroshi Osaki (The Chairman of Okinawa International Movie Festival Executive Committee), Pokke 104, and the elementary school kids who created the main poster for this year's festival.
Garage Sale joined the stage to the audience’s applause. Emi Iha then appeared dressed in a gorgeous outfit, to reveal the highlights of this year’s movie festival, including “Life sucks,” a Community-based Movie project of Okinawa by Gori of Garage Sale, “Naha NAHA Nafa!,” a movie by Kawata of Garage Sale shoot in Naha City, Comedy shows, and the red carpet upon which many well known guests will join.
A Message from Takeshi Onaga - The Mayor of Naha City
I am delighted to present a movie festival with the message of “Laugh and Peace” to the whole country, and to the world, from here in Okinawa for the 6th edition. Today the ceremonies happen at Chatan Town and Ginowan City, and I think this promotion beyond the regions achieves the first step of making the theme “All Things Great in All the Islands!” come true.
For this year, we have also created “Naha NAHA Nafa!” which is a community-based Movies of Okinawa project with the students of the movie club from Naha International High School. It is a short movie, but it became a sweet and wonderful work in which you can enjoy the beautiful landscape of Naha City, and includes the strength of all high school students. I hope you can enjoy it in the movie festival.
A Message from Hiroshi Osaki - The Chairman of Okinawa International Movie Festival Executive Committee
The 6th Okinawa International Movie Festival is already here! There are many events at Sakurazaka Theatre and Kokusai-dori in Naha city. We are planning special guests from abroad to appear at the event at Kokusai-dori. Our theme this year is “All Things Great in All the Islands!”
From Okinawa to the whole country, and to other Asian countries, we’d like to spread the circle of smiles with the sprit “Ichari Bacho-de (“once we have met, we are brothers” in Okinawa dialect)”.
Introducing Pokke 104 and the Elementary School Kids who created the Poster
Pokke 104 reveals that for this year's movie poster, “The kids drew their favorite things, activities that they enjoy, culminating in a wonderful piece of work. The design has been created with children, so I hope the festival also becomes one that people of all ages can enjoy together.”
Pokke 104 also introduced elements within the design, including a castle, an image of a festival party, and of a whale to represent the nature of Okinawa. Whale-watching is popular from December to the beggining of April in Okinawa.
After Pokke 104 explained the design, everybody began dancing the Okinawa folk dance known as Katcharsee, and she introduced a boy who drew the dragon in the center of the poster. He commented, “I’m happy to see it came to be on the poster!”
Gori of Garage Sale asked Pokke 104, “I think the children in Okinawa choose bright colors. Does the colorful taste come from nature?”
“I believe that the landscape looks clear and beautiful because of the shining sunlight,” replied Pokke 104.
The End of the Ceremony
Garage Sale has announced that count down boards will be set up around the open space of Pallet Kumoji, Makishi Public Market, Saion Square, Sakurazaka Theater, 4 stations along the on Yui rail (Oroku, Kencho-mae, Omoromachi, Shuri stations) in Naha city. The festival happens over 5 days from 20th to 24th, and the red carpet will take place in Naha is on 23rd. On the day, Kokusai-dori will be open to pedestrians only. "Many celebrities will join the event, so please come and join!"
Q&A with Gori and Kawata of Garage Sale, and Mayor Onaga
What do you anticipate this year from Garage Sale and the movie festival?
Mayor Onaga: I appreciate that Garage Sale kindly became the tourism ambassadors of Naha, and together with them we’d like to do our best to create a truly wonderful movie festival.
Gori, can you tell us about the movie that you directed here?
Gori: The movie focuses on the history and culture of Okinawa such as Koza riot and the unique cuisine called “A lunch”. To keep the audience’s interest, I also added elements of comedy, and I believe the film came out really well.
How was your experience working with high school students here in Naha city?
Kawata: The students came up with the original ideas and we cooperated with them to create the movie. I was impressed by their solidarity, so after shooting I felt satisfied more so than with other movies I’ve worked on. I felt an innocent kind of power to tackle this movie and I believe when you watch it that you may feel like you did when you were in your high school days.
This the 6th edition of the festival, do you feel that the event has spread to the society?
Gori: In the first edition, off course many people didn’t know about the festival, but now the residents of Okinawa often ask me “There is the Movie festival in March, right?” without any surprise. I believe the festival became one of the regular events of Spring in Okinawa. We need more effort to create our history, but my colleague comedians told me “I’m jealous you are going to Okinawa”, we enjoy the festival more like a vacation than work, haha!”