Forum Japan

[drivingdoc]

LOOKING FOR A PROTAGONST FOR A DOCUMENTARY FILM

We are a Berlin based production company looking for a protagonist based in Tokyo for a feature documentary film AND WHO TAUGHT YOU TO DRIVE? directed by young and talented German filmmakers Andrea Thiele and Lia Jaspers.

The subject is a humours look on globalization and how different people in different countries try to adapt to another culture. The film deals with foreigners who are forced to take their driving test again because their national driving license is not valid in their new country of residence. It will be shot in three different countries: In Japan/Tokyo, in Germany/Munich and in India/Mumbai. In Tokyo we will follow an American expat, in Mumbai a German and a woman from South Korea in Munich. They all have in common that they are in need of a driving license in order to work and establish themselves in their new countries.

Sharing a road just like sharing our life with people of different backgrounds requires tolerance and mental flexibility. Easier said than done. This film is about accepting cultural differences. It is a celebration of diversity of cultures and their underlying structure, rhythm and values. The film connects all our protagonists through the driving lessons that they have to take. We will follow each character also in their everyday lives as we want to document their individual steps towards fitting into a completely new society. This means the driving school is only a part in the film, but an important one.

We will start shooting the project this autumn. We would like to follow the overall steps it takes to get a license, filming our protagonist taking the lessons with a driving instructor.


OUR PROTAGONIST SHOULD
- be relatively new in Japan, but with the plan to live there for some time (we are not looking for tourists)
- be US-American
- be available this autumn for shooting (no other major job obligations) and have time to meet us when we come for research in September
- either just started taking driving lessons or is eager to get a Japanese licence out of personal or professional reasons as part of the documentary deals with traffic in Tokyo.
- be open to be filmed in their everyday life.

The driving lessons will be of course paid for as well as an appropriate remuneration for the “job”.
Here you can check out our production company in Berlin: www.kloosundco.de
A direct link to the project is http://www.kloosundco.de/en/production/film/WTY.html

If you are interested yourself or if you know someone from the States that just moved to Tokyo and is planning to get a Japanese drivers license, please contact us at drivingdoc@googlemail.com.

We are looking forward to hear from you.

With kind regards,


Veronika Janatkova
Kloos & Co. Medien GmbH
Schlesische Strasse 29/30
10997 Berlin
www.kloosundco.de
drivingdoc@googlemail.com