Now Anyone can Show Their Films to the World!

Japanese mobile phones have many capabilities and a camera is normally included in most models. Most phones also come equipped with a movie camera. Couples can take pictures of each other and parents can film their children anytime and anywhere. Recently, more people have been taking movies as it is so easy to do.

Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC) hosts the Tokyo Video Festival every year and invites people worldwide to submit their video works for their video contest. This year is the 28th festival and 2,291 works from 35 countries and regions (1,381 works are from overseas) were submitted for the contest. The contest award ceremony was held at Shinagawa Inter City Hall, Tokyo, on February 18.

This year, the "Video Grand Prize" went to "Fledge" produced by Ms. NAKAI Sawako of Japan. "Fledge" is a documentary in which Ms. Nakai filmed the positive lifestyle of her best friend who became a single mother when she was a high school student. Her work was highly regarded by the judges. "I thought she was strong and was encouraged by her," Ms. Nakai explained. "It was natural that I started filming her, rather than I select the subject," she explains about the motivation behind her work. The documentary was filmed as her graduation work and was her first production.

American Ms. Maryann De LEO received an "Excellence Award" for "Chernobyl Heart" which disclosed the effects of radioactive contamination on children after the nuclear power station accident occurred at Chernobyl in 1986. She mourns, "No one pays attention, in spite of the sad situation going on." This is her motivation behind her coverage. Besides receiving an Academy Award for this work, she also received Emmy Awards twice and many other awards. She continues to film serious subjects. "It may be in my genes," she smiles.

Miss Kai Ling XUE, who now lives in Canada, but originally came from Taiwan, also received an "Excellence Award" for "A Girl Named Kai," a unique work brought to life with pictures and narration that describes her inner spirit reflecting her suffering from gender identity disorder. She has searched for who she is and made herself the subject. "Being a director, I could see myself objectively," she explains about her motivations. "I am Kai before I am a man or a woman."

Each creator who submitted a work to the festival has their motivation. Video is not just a media for merely recording events any longer, but one that anyone can use to express themselves. To meet the expansion in broadband, Yahoo Japan, the largest search engine, launched a new company at the end of last year called "TV Bank" that is a search engine for movie websites. Soon, you will be able to search 100,000 movies and deliver your work to the world by just registering and using their website.

Soon, movie era will be arriving in Japan, but it is not only professional photographer who will be able to support this new wave, but also you, one of the many amateur photo- graphers.

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