Blog Post from Japan!

laurenormefilms
8 hours ago
3 min read

Laura Welsman is our Development and Placements Manager at Cardiff Animation. She travelled over to Japan to represent CAF during the in-person portion of the CAF x New Chitose Airport international Animation festival Collaboration. Laura has kindly written a blog post to give us an insight into her time over in Japan, here's what she had to say!

If you've ever wanted to know what it feels like to live in an airport, the annual New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival may well be the time and place to do it. This is the full Tom Hanks The Terminal experience with a significant twist: 5 days of independent animation, feature films, artist masterclasses and an incredibly diverse audience - from animators from all over the world, to aspiring local Japanese students, to those simply passing through on domestic flights within Japan, perhaps visiting family or on business. The entire event takes place within the Hokkaido region's main transport hub, though this airport is a world away from Cardiff or Gatwick. Amongst over 50 restaurants and shops are a Hello Kitty theme park, a chocolate factory, gacha and UFO catcher arcade, onsen (hot spring baths) and not one, but three dedicated cinema screens. This is the bustling hub of the animation festival each November.

Now, had this been a week's living in Heathrow, one might be tempted to go slightly mad, but unlike poor Mr Hanks, we were able to leave the airport to explore both countryside and city. Despite a busy festival schedule, we took the opportunities to visit Hokkaido's biggest city, Sapporo, as well as the serene, older agricultural town of Shiraoi, home to the Ainu Upopoy Museum. Resting lakeside just past an imposing sawmill, the Ainu museum was built in 2020 in partial reparations, partial conservation, of Hokkaido's indigenous people and includes a village, Kotan, where modern craftspeople weave and whittle intricate patterns which formed traditional hunting and ritual tools and garments. Interactive exhibits enabled learning the construction of the Ainu language, guided by an adorable duck mascot who misled us to think this might be a beginner's difficulty level. The language challenges didn't stop there, as English as a second language is not a given in Hokkaido. Luckily my colleague and I had learned a little Japanese, which went a long way in meeting festival partners and filmmakers.

In that regard, our Japanese colleagues were incredibly friendly and welcoming. Once formalities - douzo yoroshiku (please be kind to me/I look forward to meeting you) had set the tone for mutual respect, Japanese creative professionals are as ready to relax, laugh and talk about films as anyone.

Special highlights of the festival included Decorado - a relatable story of a middle aged mouse having an existential crisis, Umamusume Pretty Derby (Japanese horse-girl racing) which embodies both kawaii and gacha culture, and a huge variety of shorts from across the world. The Japanese Masterclass, a collaboration event between Cardiff Animation Festival and New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival, was a particular highlight. Artist and filmmaker Ryo Orikasa shared his animation practice around chance, atmosphere and the esoteric hieroglyphs of Japanese graffiti. Animation Professor Hirotoshi Iwasaki spoke of poetics and process, bringing delicate frames from his hand drawn works to share and handle.

It was heartening to see how seriously the cultural contributions of filmmakers are taken in Japan - ministers, governors and local businesses sponsored individual awards, sat on jury panels and congratulated winners personally. The festival was surrounded with a great deal of ceremony, yet staff had put such care into organizing excursions, receptions and a final izakaya (pub!) visit for filmmakers and official guests. This generated a warm, convivial atmosphere where creatives could really connect, share work and experiences.

Overall, we couldn't recommend this festival more, especially as a filmmaker submitting work. Our Welsh offering was embraced warmly - on request, nos da became a nightly goodbye - and we can't wait to see what opportunities there might be to work across the two countries again.

ありがとうござます/ Diolch yn fawr Japan!

You can find out about all of the CAF x New Chitose events here.

The online programme is live from Monday 1st December and includes: