MEGUMI joins BABEL LABEL as a producer. Sense of crisis and solutions for the domestic video industry [Director's Interview Vol. 286]

Think of the work as a set with the platform

Q: We talked about this earlier, but could you tell us as much as possible about the projects that MEGUMI is currently working on?

MEGUMI: One is a documentary that focuses on Japanese food. Even when you look around the world, it's quite rare to find dishes that require extra effort, such as making the dashi stock before stir-frying, like in Japanese or French cuisine. I'm currently at the stage of doing a lot of research, but when it comes to Japanese food, the more outrageous the ingredients, the better. However, at present, there is only about one craftsman in each village who makes the ingredients, so it is important to convey this critical situation to the rest of the country as well as to tell people overseas that ``Japanese food is amazing.I want to go to Japan.'' We are preparing to create a video that will make people think. This is a distributed work.

The other is a feature film, based on a woman in her 70s who is still alive. I would like to depict a person who experienced a lot of male-dominated and female-dominated behavior when he was young, but still managed to carve out a path for himself. This is aimed at overseas film festivals.

Q: The hurdles for a food documentary to be released in theaters must be high, so I thought it would be a good fit to hear about the streaming format.

MEGUMI: That's right. I'm thinking that if I make it about 10 minutes long and have about 8 episodes, people can watch it quickly while on the go. I want to create something that is easy for viewers to watch while aiming for a super high-quality documentary.

Q: What do you think about the importance of submitting films to overseas film festivals?

MEGUMI: For better or worse, Japanese people have a strong sense of ``Let's watch it because it's popular,'' and when we ask movie theaters to show it, we need to have a track record of ``It's been selected by a film festival.'' It's easy. Some of the cool mini-theaters are maniacs who select films based on their own judgment, but movies are commercial and show-off, so unless your name is well-known to a certain extent, they won't sell.

After all, I have a dream about film festivals. When I go to the festival, I think, ``It's great! It's fun!'' Everyone is wearing tuxedos and dresses and watching movies on the big screen... When it's a film festival overseas, there are only movie people in the city during the festival. Because it will be. It's the same feeling that a band member feels when they think, ``I want to perform at Tokyo Dome someday,'' a feeling of longing without any reason.

MEGUMI

Born in 1981, from Okayama Prefecture. As an actor, she won the 62nd Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress. In recent years, he has been planning and producing videos. His works as a producer include the drama ``Ichiko, who is completely stuck, has no choice but to become charismatic'' (2022/TV Tokyo), the movie ``Reiraku'' (2013/directed by Naoto Takenaka), and the short movie ``LAYES'' (2022). / Directed by Takuya Uchiyama). Belongs to BABEL LABEL as a producer since 2023.

Interview and text: SYO

Born in 1987. After The Graduate from Tokyo Gakugei University, he worked at a film magazine editorial production site and a film information site before becoming a film writer/editor. Works on a wide range of topics including interviews, reviews, columns, event appearances, and recommendation comments. Contributed to ``CINEMORE'', ``Cinema Cafe'', ``Soen'', ``FRIDAY Digital'', ``CREA'', ``BRUTUS'', etc. Twitter「 syocinema 」

Photography: Kazunari Aoki