With the “Let’s Travel! Project”, Short Shorts Film Festival takes you on a trip: Japan Expo has selected four short movies which take you straight to Japan. Boarding takes place in the video room!

4 short films, 4 invitations to travel:
everyday, a film is taking you to Japan
(schedule coming soon)

 

Short Shorts and the “Let’s Travel! Project”

 

In 2009, the Short Shorts Film Festival, along with the Japan Tourism Agency, started a new competition called the “Let’s Travel! Project”. To promote Japan as a tourism destination, short films use images of Japan, of its beautiful nature or encounters that are part of any trip. Short films, through digital broadcast, the Internet, smartphone downloads and with their short running times, have made their mark as a highly compatible and necessary multimedia form of visual art.

With the le “Let’s Travel! Project”, the central themes of the submitted short films are “it's great to travel”, “I want to travel”, or “I want to go to Japan”. This year, 86 films have been submitted and 7 have been selected. Discover a selection of movies at Japan Expo, about the charm of Japan and the wonders the country can show to its visitors.

 

The movies

 

Everyday, discover a film from the Short Shorts selection in the video room.

 

Okinawa: Heaven's Island
(Let’s Travel! Project 2010 Special Presentation)
By Naoko TAJIMA 

Satoshi returns to Taketomi Island for his grandmother's 97^th birthday Mandala party, a celebration that's unique to this island. As he arrives at her house, he learns that she has just passed away. The next day, from his grandmother's diary, they discover a long kept secret...

Hokkaidô: Tourism Hokkaidô "City"
(Let’s Travel! Project Best Short Award)
By Yosuke YAMAGUCHI

A foreign exchange student is leaving Sapporo. She meets a boy and goes on her last bicycle trip around Sapporo with him. He falls in love with her but she leaves without giving him her number. They meet again in Otaru where he finds out the bittersweet truth.

Shiga: Frog in the Well
(Let’s Travel! Project Best Short Award & Audience Award)
By Ken OCHIAI

Joe leaves Tôkyô for the first time in 10 years to take a trip across Japan, through Wakkanai, Biwako, and Okinawa. The people he meets along the way, the food, the culture, and the whole trip help Joe develop his inner strength as a young man.

Fukuoka: Past in the Future
(Let’s Travel! Project Best Short Award)
By Kazuhiko KONDO

Naomi is cautious when a mysterious old woman asks her to deliver something. As she makes the delivery, Naomi sees a little girl running away from her mother. Naomi chases after the girl only to be consumed by long forgotten memories. What waits at the end transcends time and space?

 

www.shortshorts.org/travel

 

Photos © Pacific Voice Inc.