Date and time:
2018-11-29 19:00 - 2018-11-29 21:00
Location:
Kauno kultūros centras, Kęstučio g. 1, Kaunas
A musical gust from Far East – on November 29th in Kaunas IFF Film Club.
TOKYO IDOLS
Director – Kyoko Miyake, USA, Japan, Canada, 2017, documentary, 90 min., in Japanese with English and Lithuanian subtitles, N-13.
Girl bands and pop music permeate Japanese life. Tokyo Idols gets at the heart of a cultural phenomenon driven by an obsession with young female sexuality and internet popularity. Meet Rio: a bona fide Tokyo Idol who takes us on her journey toward fame. Now meet her “brothers”: a group of adult male superfans who devote their lives to following her-in the virtual world and in real life. Once considered to be on the fringes of society, the brothers who gave up salaried jobs to pursue an interest in female idol culture have since become mainstream via the internet, illuminating the growing disconnect between men and women in hypermodern societies. With her provocative look into the Japanese pop music industry and its focus on traditional beauty ideals, filmmaker Kyoko Miyake confronts the nature of gender power dynamics at work. As the female idols become younger and younger, Miyake offers a critique on the veil of internet fame and the new terms of engagement that are playing out IRL around the globe.
Film trailer: https://vimeo.com/198704280
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Kyoko Miyake is a Peabody award winning filmmaker from Japan. Her latest documentary film, Tokyo Idols, was premiering in World Cinema Documentary Competition at 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Her documentary Brakeless win Peabody Award 2014. Kyoko’s first feature-length documentary, My Atomic Aunt (aka Beyond the Wave) was internationally coproduced by broadcasters including BBC, NHK and WDR and supported by numerous grants such as Sundance. It has been screened at festivals across the world, winning Gold Plaque at Chicago International Film Festival. Several short documentaries Kyoko directed have been shown at festivals internationally including Berlin, London, Sydney and SilverDocs. Kyoko has been selected for prestigious schemes such as Berlinale Talent Campus, Japanese government’s Artists Grant, Talent Campus Tokyo, Crossing Borders, Documentary Campus, and Pola Art Foundation Grant. Kyoko left Japan to study history of English witchcraft at Oxford as a Swire Centenary Scholar, having studied English history at Tokyo University. While studying and working for British and Japanese media, she picked up a camera to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a filmmaker and started to make short films on her own.
INFORMATION ABOUT TICKETS
Full price – 4 eur.
For students, seniors and viewers with disabilities – 3 eur (with ID).
Tickets are available on TIKETA (additional service fee is applicable) or in the event location 1 hour before the screening.
Kaunas IFF Film Club is supported by Lithuanian Film Centre.
Partners: Kaunas culture centre, Vytautas Magnus University, “Kauno diena”.