Hundreds of new indie features and short films are released annually in Japan, and it’s safe to say that most of their makers would like to show their work abroad. As a program advisor to the Udine Far East Film Festival, Europe’s largest showcase of Asian popular cinema, I can testify that we get far more submissions from Japan than we can screen. And some good films, specifically those by indie filmmakers, either slip through our net or get turned down.
Director Mutsuki Kameyama (who uses they/them pronouns) aims to help fellow Japanese filmmakers survive the murky waters of the international festival shark tank with their documentary, “The Night Before Upheaval.” The film is primarily a video diary of Kameyama’s experiences as they attend overseas festivals with “12 Months of Kai,” a sci-fi feature about a female web director who begins to develop feelings for a male “personal care humanoid.”
The journey starts in October 2020, with Kameyama sending out applications to dozens of festivals using Google Translate, and continues through April 2021, when the director attends the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival in Phoenix, for the world premiere of “12 Months of Kai.” While stateside, they contend with everything from a three-day hotel quarantine to the rapid-fire English of the locals.