{"id":12621,"date":"2010-07-11T15:49:21","date_gmt":"2010-07-11T19:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=12621"},"modified":"2010-07-29T10:30:51","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T14:30:51","slug":"best-of-jq-bridge-building-with-jet-filmmaker-aaron-woolfolk-januaryfebruary-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/11\/best-of-jq-bridge-building-with-jet-filmmaker-aaron-woolfolk-januaryfebruary-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of JQ: Bridge Building with JET Filmmaker Aaron Woolfolk (January\/February 2010)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

JET Filmmaker\/JQ subscriber Aaron Woolfolk at the New York premiere of his film \u2018The Harimaya Bridge,\u2019 December 2009<\/p><\/div>\n

By Lyle Sylvander (Yokohama-shi, 2001-02) for<\/em> JQ Magazine<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Most JETs enjoy telling tales about the cities they lived in. But it\u2019s a select few who take the extra step of making movies that actually take place in them. JETAA Southern California\u2019s Aaron Woolfolk (Kochi-ken, 1992-93) is the writer and director of<\/em> The Harimaya Bridge, which received a theatrical release in Japan last year and premiered\u00a0in New York’s Upper West Side in December as part of the African Disapora Film Festival.<\/em><\/p>\n

The film stars Ben Guillory as Daniel, an American man who travels from San Francisco to Kochi after his estranged son\u2014who works as an assistant English <\/em>teacher\u2014Mickey (Victor Grant) dies in a traffic accident. There, Daniel\u2019s own prejudices spark rows with his Japanese hosts and daughter-in-law Noriko (Saki Takaoka) as he discovers secrets his son left behind. The film will receive a wider release in the U.S. for spring 2010, and<\/em> JQ<\/strong> talked with Aaron about the making of the film.<\/em><\/p>\n

How did you get involved with JET?<\/strong><\/p>\n

During my senior year in college, I ran into a couple of friends who were on their way to pick up an application for the JET Program. I had nothing to do when I saw them, so I tagged along. I had never heard of the program before, but it definitely intrigued me. I had always wanted to experience another culture firsthand, and thought the best way to do that would be to live in that culture, rather than merely visiting it for a limited time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How did you decide to be a filmmaker?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was always a storyteller, even at a young age. I also had a practical side to me and when it came time to decide on a career, I briefly considered law school, but the storyteller side of me won out and I applied to film school. I got in to Columbia\u2019s MFA program, and I\u2019ve never looked back. I found the decision to be very liberating and know that I\u2019m much happier now than if I had gone to law school.<\/p>\n

Are there any Japanese filmmakers who have influenced your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, definitely. As a teenager I discovered many foreign directors I admired, including Japanese directors\u2014particularly Ozu, Mizoguchi, Itami and Kurosawa\u2014and they\u2019ve all had an impact on my work in positive ways. In particular, The Harimaya Bridge <\/em>is a kind of homage to Kurosawa\u2019s Ikiru<\/em>, which is my favorite fi lm of all time.<\/p>\n

Can you talk about the genesis of The Harimaya Bridge <\/em>and how the film came together?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I first started writing The Harimaya Bridge <\/em>in film school but knew that it would be difficult for a first-time filmmaker like me to convince people I could make a feature film in Japan. So I made two short films in Japan\u2014a comedy called Eki <\/em>and a drama called Kuroi Hitsuji<\/em>. These shorts had successful showings at film festivals and I won a few directing awards, which made the idea of me making a feature film in Japan more viable.<\/p>\n

Then I won a development grant funded by Disney and offered through Danny Glover\u2019s theater company in L.A. Danny\u2019s star power lent support for the film but it was ultimately producer Ko Mori who helped pull all the necessary elements together. He\u2019s one of the smartest people I\u2019ve ever met and his passion and integrity really kept the whole thing together during the fi nancing process. In the end, there were three major backers\u2014Eleven Arts, Ko\u2019s company, based in the U.S.; Toei, a Japanese distributor; and SSD, a Korean company.<\/p>\n

The film received a theatrical release in Japan last summer. <\/strong>How was it received?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The film\u2019s reception has been uniformly positive. Audiences love the characters and story, and really appreciate the fact that it was made by someone who actually lived in Japan. I purposely wanted to avoid many of the clich\u00e9s found in American films about foreign places, particularly the arrogance and sense of superiority with which they denigrate foreign cultures. So, the Japanese audiences I talked to were impressed by my portrayal of Japan\u2019s culture and people. In fact, some audience members were surprised that it was directed by a non-Japanese person. Also, a lot of JETs and JET alums in Japan were really enthusiastic in their response to the fi lm, which really made me happy.<\/p>\n

What are your future plans?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m currently working on a comedy-drama that takes place in the American South called Summer SOULstice<\/em>, and also a drama called Dream I Have<\/em>, which is inspired by a true story about a Japanese man who dreams of opening a jazz club in New Orleans. In terms of my hopes for a career, ideally I\u2019d like to go back and forth between making intimate dramas and big Hollywood movies. Ang Lee and Christopher Nolan both have the type of career I\u2019d like to emulate.<\/p>\n

For more info and future screenings, visit <\/em>www.theharimayabridge.com<\/a> <\/em><\/strong>and <\/em>www.facebook.com\/pages\/The-Harimaya-Bridge\/222376906581?ref=ts<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lyle Sylvander (Yokohama-shi, 2001-02) for JQ Magazine Most JETs enjoy telling tales about the cities they lived in. But it\u2019s a select few who take the extra step of making movies that actually take place in them. JETAA Southern California\u2019s Aaron Woolfolk (Kochi-ken, 1992-93) is the writer and director of The Harimaya Bridge, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articlejournalism","category-jq-magazine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-3hz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12621"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12624,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12621\/revisions\/12624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}