The city of Yamagata has just been designated as member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for the field of Film, the first in Japan, joining other 116 existing member cities around the world.
As the readers of this blog have heard and read ad nauseam, the city is the place of the oldest, and arguably the most important, documentary film festival in the Asian continent, a place I had the pleasure of visiting several times in the last decade.
It goes without saying that this is great news for the festival and the city itself, and, as many commentators have pointed out, the congratulations should go first and foremost to the people of Yamagata, the volunteers and all the people involved, to one degree or another, in the organization of the festival.
Knowing how much Japanese people
and Japanese mainstream media are obsessed with UNESCO and its heritage sites, this designation should hopefully help the festival and the various film activities that the city organizes all year round to gain more appreciation in its own country (and mediascape) — the festival is already hold in high regard internationally — and therefore gaining more support from the “establishment”.
According to the press release these are some of the planned actions:
Yamagata will:
open film to the uninitiated, widen world views, and train people to take leadership roles in culture
foster empathy and appreciation for multiformity among youngsters through film educationsupport filmmakers from developing countries and enhance opportunities to complete and show their work in Artists-in-Residencies
reaffirm Yamagata’s traditions while sharing the joy of film with cities in developing countries
inspire understanding for the Creative Cities concept and strengthen collaboration among Network cities through international conferences
I’m not an expert on the matter, but I guess that the designation will also result in a bigger flow of money to be spent on film related projects. Something that really impressed me at the last festival was the lively atmosphere at Kuguru, a restaurant/cafè where the breakfast/morning gatherings took place, a venue equipped with a nice multipurpose room that housed some of the most interesting talks and seminars. According to what I heard, the restaurant and other shops in Yamagata, like the bookstore next door, were renewed by the city and given to young people, offering them new job opportunities and a reason to stay in the city. One of the main problems in rural Japan, maybe one of the biggest issue the country will have to deal with in its near and far future, being the progressive abandonment of smaller cities and countryside towards large urban sprawls.
Hopefully with this UNESCO designation we will see a flourishing of these facilities, places that will enhance the love for cinema and film culture in the area.
Asian Docs 