BETWEEN YESTERDAY & TOMORROW

The web-based movie project BETWEEN YESTERDAY & TOMORROW was launched two weeks after the Great East Japan Ear thquake, which occurred on March 11, 2011. Based on a set of instructions provided by MAEDA Shinjiro, each filmmaker produced a five-minute film that was released on the Internet as soon as it was completed. In the first year (until March 2012), 32 artists par ticipated in the project, producing a total of 60 works. On the webs i te, informat ion on the filming date and location of each work was collected in an archive along with a sampling of the news that occurred on that day. An omnibus movie, made up of selections from each of the works, was also produced and screened at variousfilm festivals.

How do individual people deal with a catastrophe like a major earthquake, and what remains with them as they go about their daily lives? Each of the filmmakers who responded to a call from the organizers to take part in this project shot a short, five-minute video work based on a set of instructions. These “video diaries” by multiple individuals were assembled and disseminated in an equal manner via the web without forcing them into the mold of a single memory or record. These personal visual documents, which began to be shot just after the earthquake in March 2011, are outstanding in the way they share the experiences and ideas of others while respecting the diversity of their perspectives. The web platform functions as an archive of accumulated experiences and enhances the potential for documentation and expression.