Center for Gender Studies Film Screening
Dialogues with Sexual Minorities through a Film
Film Screening: Each Step as Myself
Lecturer: SHIMADA Akira (Movie Director, Representative of Rainbow Action)
Film: Each Step as Myself (Japan, 2011) 68 minutes, in Japanese
Date: 28th(Sat) , January 2012
14:30〜17:00
14:30〜15:50 Film Screening
16:00〜17:30 Lecture & Q&A Session
Place: ICU Honkan H-170
In Midosuji, Osaka, where sexual minorities and their friends walk together at "Kansai Rainbow Parade," a gay film director interviews lesbians, gays, and MtF and FtM transgendered persons. This documentary, comprised of interviews starting in October 2006, illustrates their everyday lives, stories of their coming out to their families, and their struggles and joys in various relationships including at their workplaces. After the film viewing, Mr Akira Shimada will give a talk on how this film changed his way of thinking and his environment.
Movie Director: Akira SHIMADA
In 2005, Akira Shimada started his blog, "An Ordinary Gay Man's Everyday Life" (http://akaboshi07.blog44.fc2.com/), under the name of "akaboshi." He disseminates information about Japanese sexual minorities in conjunction with YouTube. He has directed films such as No Border: Messages from Sexual Minorities in the World (with Kanako Otsuji) in 2007, and Ryu Susumu's Lessons for Modern (Mad)Culture: Homosexuality and Television in 2009, both of which were shown at the Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. He also called for the "Voluntary Meeting of Protesting against Governor Ishihara's Remark about Sexual Minorities" in 2011. The following year, he became a representative of "Rainbow Action," which changed its name after demonstrations and meetings. He was also awarded the Incentive Award of "Za Koenji Documentary Festival" for his Each Step as Myself.
In the CGS Newsletter, no. 7 (September 2007), he contributed an essay, "My Future as an Ordinary Gay Man."