Past Filmmakers

Joanne Hershfield
Women in Japan: Memories of the Past, Dreams for the Future
(Premieres November 15, 2003, at 11PM)

1. How did you come up with the idea for the film?

Our idea emerged in response to the popularity of the book, Memoirs of a Geisha that focused on a surprisingly enduring image that westerners have of Japanese women. We also noticed that recent western-made documentaries about Japan tend to focus specifically on women’s sexuality or make sweeping statements about how Japanese women are caught between tradition and change. We wanted to counter these stereotypes westerners have by showing how diverse women in Japan are.

2. How long did the production process take?

We began applying for funding in the fall of 2000 and received notice of a grant from the Japan Foundation in March 2001. We traveled to Japan in June 2001 and spent three weeks shooting. We returned to Chapel Hill in July and began post-production. We finished the documentary in April of 2002 and took it to Japan in May 2002 where we screened it fifteen times at community centers and universities around the country.

3. What challenges did you experience in the creation of the film?

The first challenge was to find women who would represent “women in Japan” in our film. When we found our characters through contacts in Japan, we then had to arrange to meet and film six of them within a three-week period, which was all our budget would allow. Given that the women lived all over Japan, it was quite a challenge to coordinate our shooting schedule with the schedule of the six participants. Once we got to the editing room, the next challenge was to decide on a structure for the documentary. Initially, we arranged the film thematically, focusing on issues such as personal history, work, family, and international experience. About two months into the editing process, we decided that this structure wasn’t working and essentially had to begin all over again.

4. What is your favorite memory from creating the film?

One memory is about an incident that occurred while we were filming the artist, Tomiyama, in her home in Tokyo. We’d just completed a two-hour interview and were ready to begin filming her working at her computer. We were all quiet for about fifteen minutes and Tomiyama was working away on her computer when the cameraman Wah Ho Chan, asked, “are we going to shoot this?” We all thought he had been filming all along! Another experience that we both consider memorable was the filming of the right-wing demonstration held in downtown Tokyo protesting the new Japanese history book that had just been approved for use in public high schools. The area was full of riot-clad, armed police and hundred of demonstrators and counter-demonstrators. The situation was quite tense. It was a strange experience to see the situation from the camera’s perspective, so to speak.

5. When someone has finished watching the film, what do you hope the take away from the experience?

We hope they come away saying, “ I didn’t know that there were women like that in Japan!”

6. What type of reaction has your film received from viewers?

Japanese audiences were very surprised that two women from the U.S. would be so interested in the topic of Japanese women. They wanted to know why and how we chose these six particular women. Many of them said that the characters were all extraordinary women and wondered why we didn’t include any “ordinary or average women.” Some felt that our film was “too positive” and that we could have talked more about the problems women in Japan faced. Others wondered why we included two immigrant women in the film, women some Japanese felt weren’t really “Japanese.” U.S. audiences generally have been very amazed by the film. To our delight, they often respond that they “didn’t know that there were women like that in Japan!” Both U.S. and Japanese audiences

7. What advice would you give to aspiring young filmmakers?

Work on a topic you really want to work on, a topic that you are passionate about. Have a point of view and make sure that your audience is aware of that point of view. Develop an understanding of as many technical aspects of film and video production as you can. The more you know about the technical aspects of documentary production, the more control you will have over the process.

8. Please tell us about the next film you plan to work on.

Jan and Joanne hope to produce another film in Japan. It will probably be about Taeko Tomiyama, the artist who appears in Women in Japan. Joanne is working on two other projects. She’s shooting a documentary about her developmentally disabled daughter, Gillian, and she’s in the pre-production phase of a documentary she will shoot in 2005, a one-hour documentary about a local project in Thailand, Thai Woman of Tomorrow, that is working to provide economic and social alternatives for young women in Thailand.

9. What are your thoughts on the film industry in NC?

There are a lot of creative, talented, and hard-working independent film and video filmmakers in North Carolina. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of support for their work. The state film commission is focused on attracting Hollywood business that brings money to the state and to some service providers but does very little for local producers and technical personnel.