“TBS Documentary Film Festival 2024” Producer Ryu Okubo The footage covered continues [CINEMORE ACADEMY Vol.27]

The TBS Documentary Film Festival has been held since 2021 as a place to encounter serious documentaries that continue to convey facts that cannot be conveyed on television or social media and the voices of the voiceless. This will be the fourth time the festival is held in 2024, and many documentaries will be released in six cities nationwide from March 15th. Why does a television station like TBS continue to hold a documentary film festival? What is the significance? We spoke to Ryu Okubo, the planner and executive producer of the festival.

Index

• The director is a member of various departments at TBS.
• Reports and documentaries
• There is a continuation of the footage

The director is a member of various departments at TBS.

Q: Mr. Okubo, you are Deputy Director of the News Department and Head of the News Content Strategy Office, but have you been in the so-called "news field" for a long time?

Okubo: I joined TBS as a new graduate a little over 30 years ago, and most of my work has been variety shows and information programs. I was in the so-called "production department" or "information production department." I didn't get into journalism until I was over 50 years old. I was in charge of the Sunday morning program "Sunday Japon" for a long time, and most of the news used on that program is news material. Because of this relationship, I have had contact with the press for a long time.

Q: Speaking of "Sunday Japon," the chairman of this film festival is Ota Hikari from Bakusho Mondai.

Okubo: I have had a long-standing relationship with Mr. Ota, including with "Sunday Japon" and "Bakuho! THE Friday," so I asked him to be chairman. Mr. Ota is very conscientious and watches all of our films. Moreover, the moment he meets a director, he says, "I've seen it!" All the directors are very happy about it.

Q: I heard that when you opened up internal competitions for film production, you received applications from people other than those in charge of news and documentaries.

Okubo: This film festival started after the success of the film " Yukio Mishima vs. Todai Zenkyoto: The Truth After 50 Years " (2020), which was made based on the TBS archives. At first, we were planning to start a film festival that collected archive works, but many people from various departments in the company raised their hands and said, "I want to do it too!" Various opinions came up, such as "I have some old material that I shot, and if I shoot some more, it could become a movie."

"Yukio Mishima vs. the Tokyo University Joint Struggle Committee: The Truth 50 Years Later" Trailer

Most of the directors who are participating in this festival are employees of TBS and its affiliated stations, but none of them make documentaries their main job. For example, some of them used to work in production but are now in the management department, some are political reporters who are following "Mr. Big," and some drama producers are following "Jesus' Ark" for some reason. Of course, they all do the work of their departments, but they all appealed to their superiors, saying, "I'll work hard at my current job, so let me make documentaries in my spare time."

The drama producer who was following the aforementioned "Jesus' Ark" was enthusiastically persuading his boss, saying, "Director Koreeda also started out with core documentaries and went all the way to Cannes!" (laughs). While doing his main job, there is something he wants to continue pursuing as a life theme. People like that are trying to take advantage of this film festival and spreading it around the company. It was such a happy situation.

Reports and documentaries