Ginza×CSR・CSV Vol.16 Ginza Social Film Festival

• ─ Movies are perfect for eliciting realizations on social issues.
• Keiko Akaguma:
  The films are 90 minutes in length, so it is easy for anyone to join. The video, music and script are richly expressive and have a passive lightheartedness to them. There are no correct answers, so they are good for having each viewer think more deeply about the topics.
  
  Yoshiko Takahashi of Chuetsu Pulp & Paper Co.:
  Books can only be read alone, but films can be shared by many people at the same time. At movie theaters, when a movie finishes, you only talk about it with the person you came with, and if you come alone, you can’t talk about it at all, so you cannot digest it. At the Ginza Social Film Festival, you can exchange opinions or discover different ideas from your own through the film with many people you have just met.
  
  Osamu Nishimura of Chuetsu Pulp & Paper Co. (below, Nishimura):
  I think the real value of this film festival is not in simply showing the film, but in creating an opportunity for the viewers to talk with one another and develop their social mindedness.

For Ginza branding as well

• ─ You are also developing collaborations with Ginza companies.
• Kataoka:
  We have used Hotel Monterey Ginza, the Coworking Space beez power provider café and other places to show our films.
  For the next time in August that will be the 9th time, we are borrowing Bunshodo for the festival. For the 10th time that is scheduled for October and is deserving of special recognition, we are being allowed to hold it in Ginza Mitsukoshi.
  I am hoping that companies in Ginza will consider the Ginza Social Film Festival a platform for improving society from Ginza and will incorporate it as part of their CSR activities. Having employees participate may help proliferate ideas about CSR through the company.
  Other Chuetsu branches are all active in local contribution activities while the Ginza branch has been behind in such activities. I hope that the film festival will lead to local contribution efforts in Ginza.
  
  Mayumi Fujii of Kunitachi Chiiki Colabo:
  In addition to volunteering at the film festival, I also run events for students in the Tama area. To Tama area students, Ginza is an unfamiliar place.
  But when I told them we hold these kinds of film festivals, they got the impression that Ginza is a neighborhood full of wonderful adults.
  Through one project, people develop an interest in visiting the place they were previously uninterested in. The festival helps brand Ginza to increase the number of future visitors.

I want it to spread to other places as a model case

• ─ How are you hoping to develop the film festival in the future?
• Watanabe:
  We have a dilemma in that it is difficult to get information about the film festivals to people other than highly socially conscious individuals. But the film festival is not rigid or formal at all, and has a very at home atmosphere. We would love for people to leisurely come out just as one way to enjoy a night in Ginza.
  
  Kataoka:
  At the moment, we only show films singly, but we hope to eventually have film showings simultaneously at various locations in Ginza over a week in a full-scale film festival. Even pull out the red carpet (laughs)
  
  Yuriho Nakano of Ohkawa Printing Co.:
  It would also be great if the Ginza Social Film Festival gave rise to an Aoyama Social Film Festival, Daikanyama Social Film Festival and so on, with each neighborhood having their own film festival.
  
  Nishimura:
  This could eventually develop into a Japan Social Film Festival with all the regions around the country collaborating (laughs)
  
  Watanabe:
  We’ve recently been getting requests to tell people how we work the film showings.
  
  Nishimura:
  What we are doing will become a model case for combining showing of social films with dialogue among viewers as a set. If we can transmit that expertise, knowledge of social issues will spread throughout each region and the project will have major significance.
  For that aim, the important thing is, first of all, to just keep on going. Even if only about 40 people come out for each showing, at 10 times a year, the message will reach as many as 400 people. If those people then tell it to their friends, the social impact will spread even further.
  Then some people will change their consumption actions or consciousness in daily living and some may start taking steps towards resolving social issues. I think that is where the value in our film festival lies.

• ■ Schedule for next film festival (as of August 19, 2014)
  Date & Time: Friday, August 29, 2014
  　　　　Doors open 6:30 PM　Starts 7 PM　Ends around 9 PM
  Location: 6F Bunshodo
  　　　　http://www.bunshodo.co.jp/company/map.html
  Participation fee: 1000 yen (film and dialogue)
  Social: 1500 yen (including alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and snacks) Starts around 9 PM
  Capacity: 40 people
  Organizers: Chuetsu Pulp & Paper Co.
  Auspices: Cetus & General Press Inc., Alterna, Bunshodo
  Film: LIGHT UP NIPPON – Nihon wo Terashita Kiseki no Hanabi (= “The Miracle Fireworks that Lit up Japan”)
  　　　　　http://www.lightupnippon.net/about