The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF) was launched in 1989 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the city and has since been held biennially in October, the most delightful season in Yamagata. It is one of the few film festivals in Asia devoted exclusively to the documentary form. Its scope, however, reaches beyond simply screening recent ground-breaking works in its International Competition. New Asian Currents, the competition program introducing emerging filmmakers from across Asia, has over the years become one of the festival’s vibrant centers of attention as a meeting place of raw energy. By featuring special events and programs shedding light on the history and diversity of filmmaking, the YIDFF has worked hard to create a new hub for producing the alternative and independent non-fiction films and documentary discussions as a form of expression.
In 2018, the YIDFF was included on the Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List for the annual Academy Awards®. Grand prize winners of the YIDFF’s two competitive sections, the International Competition and New Asian Currents, become eligible for Oscar consideration in the Documentary Feature category the following year.
With no end in sight for the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 edition became entirely online. Yamagata saw this crisis as an opportunity to show its flexibility to develop new audiences while conveying the spirit that the festival has cultivated over the years. The fixed time schedule for screenings and director Q&A sessions at this year’s YIDFF reflects an attempt to create conditions for participants to have an experience akin to watching a film in the theater – a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.
Agency for Cultural Affairs Documentary Film Awards
The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan honors outstanding Japanese documentaries with awards each year. In collaboration with the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival for the first time, a program of awarded documentaries of fiscal years 2020 and 2021 will be presented online for free.
- All films are scheduled to stream at a set date and time (times are Japan Standard Time – UTC +9 hours).
- The number of tickets is limited.
- Registration for tickets starts 22 October 2021, on the YIDFF ONLINE! website.
With the Cooperation of Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan; UNIJAPAN
〈Documentary Film Awards 2020〉
Sunday, 7 November 2021
| 11:00 – 12:08 | Planet of the Crabs (68 min) |
|---|---|
| 13:00 – 14:36 | Songs of Entoko – The Power of Feebleness – (96 min) |
| 15:00 – 16:00 | Online talk discussion with the two directors |
Songs of Entoko – The Power of Feebleness –
えんとこの歌 寝たきり歌人・遠藤滋
Director: Ise Shinichi / Japan / 2019 / 96 min
Subtitles: English
Endo Shigeru, a bedridden poet, spends days at “Entoko” with young caregivers. This film is a record of their interaction over 25 years and depicts how they support each other.
| 13:00 – 14:36 | Songs of Entoko – The Power of Feebleness – (96 min) |
|---|---|
| 15:00 – 16:00 | Online talk discussion with the two directors |
Planet of the Crabs
蟹の惑星
Director: Murakami Hiroyasu / Japan / 2019 / 68 min
Subtitles: None
Through the eyes of Yoshida Tadayoshi, who continues his own research on crabs in the Tama River estuary, this film looks at the amazing lives of crabs living in a corner of the city.
| 11:00 – 12:08 | Planet of the Crabs (68 min) |
|---|---|
| 15:00 – 16:00 | Online talk discussion with the two directors |
〈Documentary Film Awards 2021〉
Sunday, 14 November 2021
| 11:00 – 12:56 | Silence on that Day (116 min) |
|---|---|
| 13:30 – 14:49 | Double Layered Town / Making a Song to Replace Our Positions (79 min) |
| 15:30 – 17:07 | Singing in the Dark: Erasing the Disabled of Okinawa (97 min) |
| 17:10 – 18:10 | Online talk discussion with the four directors of three films |
Screenings
Silence on that Day
きこえなかったあの日
Director: Imamura Ayako/Japan / 2021 / 116 min
Subtitles: Japanese & English
The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, the 2018 floods in western Japan, the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a ten-year record of deaf people’s lives as they dealt with the difficulties brought about by natural disasters, filmed by the director who is also deaf.
| 11:00 – 12:56 | Silence on that Day (116 min) |
|---|---|
| 17:10 – 18:10 | Online talk discussion with the four directors of three films |
Double Layered Town / Making a Song to Replace Our Positions
二重のまち／交代地のうたを編む
Directors: Komori Haruka + Seo Natsumi/Japan / 2019 / 79 min
Subtitles: English
Four young travelers head to Rikuzentakata to listen to the voices of the local people, to repeatedly dialogue with each other, and to recite the story of the Double Layered Town. Through these cycles, the travelers find their own speaking voice.
| 13:30 – 14:49 | Double Layered Town / Making a Song to Replace Our Positions (79 min) |
|---|---|
| 17:10 – 18:10 | Online talk discussion with the four directors of three films |
Singing in the Dark: Erasing the Disabled of Okinawa
夜明け前のうた 消された沖縄の障害者
Director: Hara Yoshikazu/Japan / 2020 / 97 min
Subtitles: English
Incarcerating the mentally ill in sheds and other private enclosures was permitted under Japanese law and continued in Okinawa until 1972. The film leads us to hear the unheard song of victims of this cruel system of social isolation.
| 15:30 – 17:07 | Silence on that Day (116 min) |
|---|---|
| 17:10 – 18:10 | Online talk discussion with the four directors of three films |