Chris-Pallaris's video: 50 Years on

50 Years On by Chris Pallaris 50 years on is a short documentary essay based on my experience of Japan. I have employed a montage technique in similar style to Chris Markers Sans Soleil, sewing together footage taken during my trip to form a collective entity. 50 years on is based on a personal appreciation of Japanese culture; one that has been rapidly changing and modernising since Japans defeat in the Pacific War. "50 years on" (179.5Mb) Quicktime required Stills from 50 Years On The film begins with and cuts to several clips of a group of teenage musicians playing American inspired jazz music. They are set in front of a large contemporary piece of Japanese sculpture and based in the glamorous modern Ginza district in Tokyo; a perfect fusion of Japanese and Western style culture. The group leader, adorning a traditional style black kimono represents the smallest element of traditional culture that exists in a district concentrated with glamorous Western stores; Tiffanys, Cartier, Channel, Dior, and modern Japanese triumphs; the notorious Sony building, whose staircase, Marker compared to as the instrument that formed the musical score of Tokyo. This very score would form the basis of my seven minute documentary; performed by eight Japanese teenage jazz musicians. Footage contained within my montage is varied. Serene imagery of Japanese gardens, leaves slowly rustling in the wind and naturally flowing water are married with distant scenes of Tokyo city and sped-up footage of Japanese people absorbed in their daily habitual lives. The different social classes in Japan are clear to see. A shot of a Japanese business man dressed in a neat black suit seemingly on his way to work cuts seamlessly to a second shot of a man pushing along his friend in a wheelchair. Set in the backstreets of Tokyo, crisscrossed with electric wire, this is the soft underbelly of Tokyo that the economic reform forgot; the areas that are not visible from the top of the gigantic 101 story Mori building. In Ueno Park, shots include aging and homeless men, sitting regimented, legs crossed like school children sipping soup given to them by well dressed men and women, all the time entertained by Christian folk music. The discipline and meticulousness of Japanese people is nothing short of extraordinary. A shot of an elderly Japanese lady, adorned in traditional Japanese style dress, delicately sweeps up the leaves that continue to fall on the grounds on the notorious Golden Pavilion. Armed with no more than an old broom, her work is carried out with such efficiency and honesty even in the knowledge that it can never fully be fulfilled. Perhaps the lady represents the very Packman concept of Japanese society that Marker discussed in Sans Soleil. The idea of inequality of gaze is evident in the evening time-lapse shots of the famous Sanai building in Ginza. Either side of the building, larger than life billboard adverts featuring beautiful Western ladies look down in an almost superior gaze at Japanese culture. The sped-up video makes the people and civilization below unrecognisable; they become traces of light moving swiftly from one side of the screen to the next. The Western ladies however remain fixed and unyielding; a symbol that they are here to stay. The film ends with a shot of the sun gradually setting behind Mount Fuji as the land of the rising sun and its musical score fade to a close.