The 11th Okinawa International Movie Festival (OIMF) really kicked into high gear on Friday, April 19th with a huge number of excellent film screenings as well as presentations, competitions and events. The day started with the World Premiere screening of the Sri Lankan documentary “My Life as a Cowboy” at Sakurazaka Theater.

The documentary by director Boodee Keerthisena gives audiences a fascinating view of people who make their homes next to and between the railway, and have for generations. It captures the fast-vanishing neighborhood in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka that is quickly transforming into an Asian metropolis.

Keerthisena is one of Sri Lanka’s leading filmmakers. With a Hollywood background, he has become an important name in the film industry by featuring his avant-garde productions with a human aspect.

Before the screening, Keerthisena spoke. He thanked Yoshimoto and explained how the film came about. “(The community) is actually on my way home. Sometimes you have to cross the railway line and you see houses, houses, houses. So I was interested to see how these things looked like. So I started walking and hanging around…. This is when I discovered the neighborhood. People sometimes have tea and their living room is the railway. It inspired me to make this film.”

Next up was the Japan-Myanmar feature co-production “My Country My Home.” It aims to bring together audiences from both countries. The film received a very enthusiastic reception at the screening, so we can see it is succeeding. The crowd at the Sakurazaka Theatre included many people from Myanmar living in Okinawa who showered the cast and crew of the film with bouquets of flowers and gifts.

The work starts with 18-year-old Nan (young Myanmar star Wutt Hmone Shwe Yi) graduating high school in Tokyo and preparing to go to study as a pastry chef. Although she was taught the Burmese language by her father, who runs a Burmese restaurant, Nan considers herself Japanese. And because she was born and raised in Japan, she assumes she is a Japanese citizen. Her father informs her that she does not hold citizenship of either country, making her a stateless person. Nan is angry until she reads a diary left behind by her late mother that reveals the political circumstances that forced her parents to flee their homeland.

Yan Aung, who plays Nan’s father, is a celebrated actor with a long career in Myanmar, but said that he learned a lot of things by filming in Tokyo. “It was really impressive to see how dedicated and hard working the Japanese crew was,” he recalled.

It wasn’t only films that attracted big audiences on Friday. People in the creative industries flocked to Yoshimoto Kogyo’s Laugh & Peace school for a talk event on “How to Make Works that Become the Next Big Hit.” They gave big rounds of applause to welcome the two speakers: performer and writer Toshiyuki Itakura spoke with creative agent Ryohei Sadoshima.

Both of them work in several different fields. Itakura got his start 20 years ago with the Yoshimoto in comedy duo Impulse. His working writing skits for the group lead to a career as a writer of detective novels, as well as a novel based on the popular Gundam animation. Sadoshima began as an editor and now runs the Cork Agency, which represents writers, illustrators and people in other creative fields.

Itakura said that through his own career he has found that it is not enough simply to think up an interesting story. “Today a writer must also think about how stories may be marketed,” he said. “And they have to take part in that process.”

Sadoshima said that it is important how creative people manage their own work, explaining that many companies see 2019 as a year to reform the working style, cutting overtime and inefficient practices. “We all need to do this on an individual level as well,” he said.

The 11th Okinawa International Movie Festival is committed to championing both the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at saving the planet, and the host prefecture of Okinawa. The fun, interactive competition for commercials, “41Fes,” showcased 30-second spots based on the SDGs. The event in the evening of April 19 was free to the public, and the 1,000-seat Ginowan Community Hall was completely filled with people eager to see their favorite entertainers and music acts, as well as the commercials, about Okinawa.

MCs Takashi Fujii and Nao Asahi explained that people from Okinawa’s 41 cities, towns and villages were invited to submit commercials promoting their hometowns. The best entries from each region were chosen for the event. The MCs introduced the jury, which included the celebrated actress YOU and the Yoshimoto comedy duo Garage Sale. The 41 video clips were presented in four separate groups, with Yoshimoto comedians such as Yuriyan Retriever and Chocolate Planet assigned to support each group and introduced the clips with hilarious comments.

Third place went to the commercial promoting the town of Chatan, which features a group of young dancers that has performed at the Okinawan International Film Festival in the past. Second place went to the town of Yonabaru for a video about how the community comes together to make a massive hemp rope used in a local festival. Actress YOU announced that the top honor, which included a prize of 500,000 yen, went to the city of Uruma for a video introducing a local leader who dresses as the character “Yonaemon” to teach children about the value of all life.

Topping of the day was the highly anticipated World Premiere of the documentary Small Island, Big Song took place at Sakurazaka Theater. This beautiful documentary was conceived by producer BaoBao Chen and director Tim Cole, who were on hand for the screening. It’s based on the idea that the indigenous aboriginal people of Taiwan were seafaring, and they spread out all through Austronesian. The clearest evidence of this is the relationships between the indigenous people’s languages in many areas, and their beautiful music.

Chen and Cole traveled all around the region from Taiwan to Madagascar, New Zealand to Easter Island and Bali to Papua New Guinea. The met, communed with, and recorded traditional musicians in these countries, playing in their natural locales. The result is breathtaking. Not only do we have shots of spectacular nature and picturesque areas but we also experience the indigenous music, which is stunningly beautiful and mesmerizing.

After the screening Cole said, ‘We wanted to appreciate how beautiful our planet is and appreciate beautiful music from around it.” Chen added, “Four years ago when we had this idea we didn’t have much money or resources or some of the skills too. But we believe everyone can make a change in any subject you’re passionate about.”

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