September 11, 2007 – 2:55 pm
We definitely enjoyed the whole experience. It was also a good opportunity for everyone in the group to travel together and the shared experience would be one of the most beautiful things we had in life.
People were so friendly and that made me feel comfortable. It was different from Japanese customs and I liked that [...]
August 20, 2007 – 3:01 pm
The ‘ten feet away’ International festival for me.
I was involved in this festival from an early stage, I went to St. Petersburg as part of the festival, I was part of some of the decision making and finally I photographed a lot of the event. This is as honest a review of the festival [...]
Esta pintura representa un cuerto de hospedaje para la gende de la calle en medellìn, un poco oscura, miedosa tal vez, aun asì, en medio de lo lugubre que se ve, las relaciones que se pueden crear en una noche, en medio de risas y drogas a veces, la gente se conecta y llega a [...]
Hello everyone, I must tell you all, we put lots of effort making sure that there would be plenty of activities, performances and opportunities for everyone. We really hope you come along to the festival and have a great time; it has been a year of work and preparations to make this happen and finally it’s SHOWTIME!!! I also want to say thanks to all the people who in one way or another contributed to make this possible. But there is one person I have to mention here and that is Julia Farrington for having that vision and believe this event was achievable.
Please click here and check out the festival program, if there is something missing please leave a comment, if it is urgent give me a call +44(0)7795430152.
Director/Producer/Cinematography/Editor/: Motoharu Iida
Music: Kazutoki Umezu
Screening at TEN FEET AWAY INTERNATIONAL
Friday 3.00pm @ the screning room
“Ashigara-san” (Mr. Ashigara) is a homeless man who has been living on the streets for more than 20 years. He eats food that he finds in garbage bags. He does not talk much, and he does not associate with others. One day the director saw him smiling and decided that he would like to get to know Ashigara-san better. That is when he started filming him. He has listened to Ashigara-san’s words and become very close to him in the very situation that has changed time and time again. During the 3 years of filming, a unique sense of trust has developed between them, which led to unexpected changes in Ashigara-san’s life. Watching Ashigara-san as he begins a new life gives us hope and makes us smile. This film quietly asks us many questions, such as, “What is life?”, “What is hope?”, and “What is the connection between people?”
Director’s profile: Motoharu Iida was born in 1973. From 1996, he started helping homeless people as a volunteer in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Currently he makes images and films as a freelancer. This is the first work he made in the long piece documentary movie as independent production.
E-mail: motoharu@mse.biglobe.ne.jp
“Ashigara-san” website: http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~ashigara/
Holistic massage stimulates the body’s innate ability to heal itself, promotes physical, mental and emotional well-being and a sense of harmony within the self.
It will treat many of our modern-day ailment such as stress, lack of energy, lack of concentration, sleeplessness,fatigue, PMT, headache, backache, cellulite, eye strain, stiff neck and shoulders, various skin problems and [...]
I was not thinking of anything
I was creating a vision of the sounds of the streets
Skateboarders, discos, the far distant, rhythms of Buskers
And the rhythms of the moving London
Potent smells and acrid tastes
Soft touches and lightning movement
A two line poem I had previously composed
Found rhythm and shape
On these beats of London
John Sheehy
Demian is a juggler and my brother took the pictures and as we are still waiting for Buenos Aires to say hello, I thought I would post a couple of pictures, just to make the wheel move, let’s see if something happens.
Billy
and
Sasha has been the Art Director of the excellent ‘Put Domoi’ - St. Petersburg’s Street Paper. In this interview he talks about his journey, and in the second interview (coming soon) he will talk about the famous ‘ Art Squat of Pushkinskaya’ which he helped found in the late 80’s. This is the first time we have attampted simultaneous translation, so your feedback will be much appreciated.
Click here for interview in translation.
Click here for interview in Russian only.
Last night we stayed in a different hostel.Two men in a dorm full of women. This is a better thing to imagine than it is to do. The whole room smells a bit girly and is really girlified. On returning to the center of town after yesterdays debacle with spending too much money on food we found a cheap eats in the form of chicken kebab wraps for a pound. They were smothered in some white yoghurt sauce but hey beggars can’t be choosers! After we returned to the offices of New Social Solutions where we were bouncing off the walls due to a severe caffeine overdose and HOORAY we uploaded our first blog to the ten feet away website. Job well done.
Arkady took us out for a meal at a reasonably priced restaurant and I had bacon and chips, it was ok. Can’t say much for the food here. Today has had many ups and downs and ended with exactly that choice. With Ade and Arkady I felt lost for a long while, felt like a third leg, someone who was just there to take photos at peoples request. My views didn’t feel like they had a place to be expressed I felt overwhelmed by the needs of ten feet away and putdomoi.
Later Arkady started inviting me in to things that interested him personally. This did begin to relax me a bit, but I still have to see if he can see me as someone more than just a person that takes photographs. Today has been very successful as far as getting around has been. We have successfully begun to navigate the St. Petersburg underground system, when we take time to match the symbols that is and ade has become very good at reading the maps in his travel book.
That evening we decided to go for a drink and it was here we had a significant choice. The bar we went to, you could choose to go upstairs to ‘Heaven’ or downstairs to ‘Hell’. Naturally, we choose hell, what a great choice. They serve big stein glasses of beer at very affordable prices. We got quite drunk and then made our way back to the hostel. At one point Ade was so concentrating on photographing the stations he had left his travel book on the bench. We had to go back one stop and I guess Ade is telling the truth as it seems he is a very lucky person, it was still there. On returning to the hostel we had a beer to drink the night out and spoke with a young student Russian couple, Alexi and Olga.
