The Modern Day Samurai

Tokyo Cowboys in Saiyouken Video

Does Tokyo Cowboys have Legs?

"Tokyo Cowboys" has been haunting me these days. Maybe it is finished, but I don't think so. Maybe I'm crazy and just can't let it go at that.

Paul hooked me up with a producer turned distributor out in La La Land. He said TC could have legs. Cut everyone out except Ken, he says. I like the idea. Ken likes the idea. There is good YouTube footage, and I want to do another trip.

Everybody thinks I'm crazy. Including my business partner.

Robert thinks I should break it into Webisodes. I'm not a hundred percent sure what that is, but it sounds good. We shot over 500 hours of footage. A lot of interviews with a lot of guys. We shot some Japanese people. Lots and lots of people.

Anyway...

Where to go from here?

Tokyo Cowboys at Lusher Charter School

Tokyo Cowboys had its New Orleans premiere yesterday at Lusher Charter School Uptown. Head of Media Studies and fellow Loyola Alumnus, Christopher Jeansonne invited me to speak about Elektrik Zoo's debut feature documentary, working as an independent filmmaker and how I got from Big Branch to Tokyo to London and back home again.

I was quite impressed with the students. They were engaged and informed, aware of the world around them, not afraid to formulate their own opinions and not afraid to call each other on faulty logic. I was also impressed with Christopher's curriculum. This term he is screening Ozu, Kurosawa, Kitano, Lynch, and Wenders among others. I was quite proud to have TC screen along side films by these great filmmakers.

Tokyo Cowboys does Naperville

This from the Elektrik Zoo Blog:


Tokyo Cowboys will screen at the Naperville Independent Film Festival in Naperville, Illinois in September. In addition, Elektrik Zoo's debut documentary feature about the trials and tribulations of life on the post-modern urban frontier has been nominated for best documentary feature.

Read the rest on the Elektrik Zoo Blog.

Death by Overwork

The Mainichi Shinbun reports today on a 32 year-old man who has died from Karoshi, or overwork. Granted, I read a few of the Japan blogs, but this is the second Karoshi incident I've read about today.

We mention Karoshi in "Tokyo Cowboys"...how the Salaryman sacrifices everything for work...how the sacrifice can take years of training and can sometimes result in death by overwork. Some people think this line is funny, but it's not meant to be. The kids train from a very early age. I've worked in the schools. Freezing, no coats allowed...study, study, study....then sports and after school activities...then juku (cram school)...then studying until late at night. I have never seen kids so exhausted.

I have seen them...the Salarymen and women falling asleep standing up on the trains. I have worked in their offices. I couldn't do it. I would leave every day at 5 p.m. with an "o-saki ni..." (I'm going before you...I'm committing a great rudeness). I felt ashamed abandoning them. But I was not a modern day samurai.

There is always a bit of an outcry for something to be done. But this kind of work-yourself-to-death ethic is almost a part of the cultural heritage of the Japanese who, during Samurai days, would rather gut themselves than lose face.

Why didn't the young man just quit? Why didn't he just say: "Take this job and shove it!"

It's just not done.

There is another bit in Cowboys where our mysterious J-lady commentator says that the Japanese don't like to say "no" because it is rude. But asking too much can be a burden. So the responsibility lies on the person who asks and not the one who answers (as is typical in Western culture).

There is some kind of Catch-22 thing going on here, but I can't work it out in my head.

Thanks to TokyoMango for the heads up. Also pinched the .gif and following quote from them: "The image shows a placard that reads: Death from overwork. Be careful not to work too much."

Interview on Directors Notes

Yay! This from the Elektrik Zoo Blog:


Elektrik Zoo co-founder Daneeta Loretta Saft was interviewed on Directors Notes last week (link here). She discusses the joys of independent filmmaking, her career as a writer and her feature documentary "Tokyo Cowboys," which she co-directed and co-produced with Elektrik Zoo partner Patrick Jackson.

Tokyo Cowboys Does Atlanta

Yay! This from the Elektrik Zoo Blog:

The Elektrik Zoo's debut feature documentary "Tokyo Cowboys" will screen at the 5th Annual Atlanta Underground Film Festival on Thursday, August 21st at 7 p.m. "We are quite excited to screen alongside 'Wiener Takes All' and '1000 Journals,' some of the best storytelling documentaries of this year," said director Daneeta Loretta Saft.

For more information about the film, please visit the Tokyo Cowboys website.

Anita Green

Tokyo Cowboys European Premiere

Yay! This from the Elektrik Zoo blog:

The Elektrik Zoo's debut feature documentary "Tokyo Cowboys" will have it's European premiere at the Ischia Film Festival in Italy. The festival celebrates the use of location as a character in the film.

Co-director Daneeta Loretta Saft said "We always had the notion that Tokyo was the 5th character in the film. The film is called Tokyo Cowboys after all. So, when Ischia contacted us about screening the film, we were delighted. It means that we have succeeded in that respect."

The festival will take place from the 22nd to the 29th of June. The filmmakers are currently seeking sponsorship to attend. For more information, contact info "at" tokyocowboys "dot" com.

Tokyo Cowboys at STIFF

Yay! This from the Elektrik Zoo Website.

Feature documentary "Tokyo Cowboys" directed and produced by The Elektrik Zoo's Patrick Jackson and Daneeta Loretta Saft will screen at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival in June.

"Screening at STIFF is a special treat for us," said Daneeta Saft. "We hope to pack out the cinema and get this puppy sold."

Saft and Jackson are in the process of selling the film and setting up their next project, "Down in the Parish" (working title).

Tokyo Cowboys in the Telegraph

Tokyo Cowboys has been ever so briefly mentioned in the Daily Telegraph. Yay! Our first mainstream press.

Online is a Place in Hell

Spent days and days onlining the film only to discover after exporting to digi that there are two mistakes in the subtitles. They are very minor mistakes, but Patrick's brain sings out "I didn't work on this effing film for 6 years to let slide 2 minor mistakes."

This is the project that never ends. This is the project that eats all of our money. This is the project that threatens to break both of us in two.

Is it worth it?

If you believe that this world is just an illusion, then no. Nothing is really worth it. If you believe that our sole/soul purpose in this world is to create, then maybe. It's hard for me to tell because I am so sick of it all at the moment that I just want to vomit.

Actually, I just want to go home. But it's always a question of money...should I throw all of the money I have into the bottomless pit that has become "Tokyo Cowboys," or should I spend it on something as frivolous as going home to visit my family whom I haven't seen in a year and a half.

Tough choice.

This is not bitching. This is honesty for all of you bright-eyed and bushy tailed people out there who are thinking about getting into filmmaking. This is the reality. And, sometimes it sucks. I hope to bring you good news next time so that you know it doesn't always suck.


P.S. I just had a falafel, and I feel a little better.

Graphic Tedium

I have just spent the past 4 hours exporting all of the graphics of the film, one of which you see on your left converted to a jpg so it looks crappy. It was a nightmare, and I hope I never have to do it again but instead can hire someone to do it for me.

ahahahahahaahha.

I'm going mad.

Little Rock Film Festival

Just got confirmation that we are in competition at the Little Rock Film Festival, which takes place in May. We've got two really good slots: Saturday May 17th at 4:30 p.m. and Sunday May 18th at 1:00 p.m. You can see our festival page here. I should remind all you NOLA buddies that Little Rock is just a day's drive from New Orleans. How about it? Shall we have ourselves a convoy?

The Tokyo Cowboys Premiere

This morning of the premiere, I got up too early and started drinking way too much coffee, which lead to a full-fledged panic attack. Cassie's flatmate Brendan talked me back from the ledge. The film screened at 2:40 p.m. so spent the day pacing and practicing my speech.

This is me doing last minute changes on my speech:

The rental car place had a drop off service, so it was like getting chauffeured to the premiere. The screening was held at the Imaginasian Center in downtown L.A., which is very nice. I hung out in the lobby with the J-crew eating their onigiri and drinking their tea until Kevin and Dave arrived. I was afraid they were going to be the only ones to show up, but pretty soon people started to arrive, and we went into the cinema.

This is Kevin and Dave and Me after the screening:

The cinema was really nice. Good comfy seats with lots of leg room, nice speakers and a nice sized screen. There were about 20 people there, which I thought was pretty good for a Monday afternoon at 2:40 p.m.

I got up and gave my speech, which went really well mostly because I couldn't see a damn thing with the spot light in my eyes. On the way back to my seat, I was approached by another festival programmer, and we swapped cards.

I stayed for the whole film. Thank god we did the sound mix (which wasn't in time for this screening) because the sound is ropey. Something we hadn't noticed on the home speakers or even on the LFS speakers. But you really notice it on a good set of speakers like at the Imaginasian Center.

People laughed right the way through. Some people came up afterwards and said they really enjoyed it and that they really could relate to the characters...that they felt like they were sharing a part of their lives through the film. I was sad that Patrick wasn't there for the first public screening.

Kevin and Dave drove me back to Cassie's place, and I crashed a bit. Too much excitement for one day.

Gayla

Last night I went to the Japan Film Festival Gayla at the Japan American Museum in downtown L.A. Not having Patrick with me, Cassie went as my date. We got all dolled up, and I obsessed about my speech, which, according to Takahashi-san was supposed to go on for 5 minutes.

You never know what to expect at J-events. There was pizza and sushi and oolong-cha. At first we thought there was no beer, but we found that too, and I started drinking right away.

The festivities started with a J-girl duo:


But it was weird. No one was listening. They just kept on eating and chatting. Then the programmer got up, and the same thing. Then I got up to do my speech and realized that I shouldn't have stressed so much about it because no one was listening. No one cared. L.A. is a weird town. The filmmaker does not rule.

After, went for sushi in Little Tokyo. I don't think we picked a good place, though. What we thought were J-people sitting at the sushi bar turned out not to be. Cassie says there's better sushi in Silverlake. Still, it was fun to hang out with Cassie and get dressed up.

Here in L.A.

After the longest day ever (time expands when you travel from London to L.A.), I have arrived. Met Cassie and her canine companion Gordon at Union Station last night. Will be attending the opening Gala tonight. Takahashi-san has asked that I give a speech, but my brain is mush from the jet lag. Haven't heard from P.J. yet, so if you're reading this from London, can you call him and tell him to call his girlfriend, already. The picture is from Cassie's side garden. She has a back garden as well. It's so warm that I can sit out here in a spaghetti strap dress and nothing else. I love southern California.

California Dreamin': The Japan Film Festival

Oh my gosh, I am seriously about to pee myself. Thanks to the support of some very fine people at the London Film School, I have just booked the tickets to L.A. to attend the Tokyo Cowboys world premiere at the Japan Film Festival. You can't imagine the amount of financial footwork that was involved, but, whatever...

Do I call this the world premiere? The film isn't technically finished yet. What we're screening at the JFF doesn't have the final sound mix or the grade.

A moment of silence for Patrick who is not going. He has graciously stepped aside to send me to represent the film.

I will be staying with good friend and fellow LFS alumni Cassie Destino whom I met at the film school. Looking forward to meeting her dog. Looking forward to being in the California sunshine, and looking forward to seeing some very old friends that I have not seen in ages.

New York-Tokyo Press

"Tokyo Cowboys" has just been mentioned on the New York-Tokyo website. Awesome!

Dubbing Theatre Footage

Here's a little clip I shot in the dubbing theater today on my mobile phone of Alexej doing his stuff.