KOJI INOUE
A DEAF PHOTOGRAPHER BEYOND SIGNS
Japanese with English or French subtitles (60 min - PAL & NTSC)

Production: FotoFilmEcrit - phone: 331.48833971 - e-mail: fotofilmecrit@hotmail.com

Film direction & image : Brigitte Lemaine
Sound: Junko Miura, Masahiko Hosokawa, Tsuyoshi Gushiken
Music: Masahiko Hosokawa
Editing: Sandrine Plaud
Mixing: Christophe Brajdic
Translation Assistance: Asako Imamura, Shoko Takahashi, Hisako Ruchot

Festivals: Maison de la culture du Japon Paris, Salon des refusés Forum des images Paris, Médiathèque d'Alès Mois du documentaire, Festival Cinéma & Cultures d'Asie Lyon, Festival Les Identités Remarquables Brest, Bibliothèque André Malraux Paris, Cinéma Le Cosmos Fontenay-sous-Bois, Mois extraordinaire du Handicap Paris, Théâtre de Nice et Signes (France), Independent Film Festival Brussels (Belgium), Journées photographiques Bienne (Switzerland), Japanese Cultural Institute Roma (Italy), Villa Kujoyama Kyoto, Tokyo Deaf Festival (Japan)

With the participation of: Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, AFAA, Fondation du Japon, Kyoto Seika University, Fondation Kimio Hatada, Hajime Inoue, Athénaïse, GL Pipa, Panasonic, ANA, IBM, Jacqueline Lemaine

Koji inoue (1919-1993), originally from Fukuoka, became deaf at the age of three after falling down the stairs. At a very early age he discovered a passion for photography as a means of selfexpression. He travelled his country, winning prizes, and in 1959 he went to Okinawa, the only photographer to bear witness to the American occupation. He published two books and was featured in exhibitions, not only in Japan but also in France, at the Mois de la Photo in Paris and the Rencontres Internationales de Photographie in Arles, which devoted a retrospective to him. Unfortunately, he died three months before.

This 60-minute documentary looks back at his life and the different stages of his work through the accounts of his family and friends, with six themes: Waiting, Childhood, The Street, Portraits, Work and Humour. A fresh look at Japan, deafness and photography.

The Deaf Childhood
With English subtitles and with a booklet in English (64 min - PAL)

A documentary film by Brigitte Lemaine

Production: FotoFilmEcrit - phone: 331.48833971 - e-mail: fotofilmecrit@hotmail.com
Coproduction: IMAGES PLUS

Image & sound: Sylvie Jacquemin
Music: Jean-Marc Zelwer
Editing: Anne-Marie de Bourgies
Mixing: Emmanuel Jagueux

With the participation of: TSR, CNC, Fondation Orange et Fondation René Fournier for Mistreated Children (under the aegis of Fondation de France)

Award: Silver Key Festival Lorquin, 2 certificates of merit Festival « Traces de vie » Clermont-Ferrand (France), 3rd prize ImagéSanté Liège (Belgium)

Festivals: Ethnographic Films Québec (Canada) Doc Outlook Market Visions du Réel Nyon (Switzerland), Ciné-vidéo-psy Lorquin, Cinéma Douarnenez, Science et Cinéma Oullins, « Traces de vie » Clermont-Ferrand, Charleville-Mézières (France), ImagéSanté (Belgium), Deaf International Film Festival Rochester, Deaf Maine Film Festival (USA), Cine Deaf Roma (Italy), Cine Sordo (Equador).

Elsa is a little nine-year-old girl who can hear and speak, yet, her parents are deaf and cannot speak. Her parents are very active among various associations for the deaf. Her father is a sign language professor and her mother is a painter. Elsa expresses herself in the French sign language and in spoken French just like her little seven-year-old brother, Réno.
At home, the children communicate in sign language even though television, the Internet and friends bring in the French. At school and with neighbors they use spoken language. She often has to translate for others. And there are those who are kind and those who are not and reject and even persecute them. How does she go about evolving in a healthy and balanced way avoiding misfortune?

The film tells the story of this little girl wthin her family and social life. In the midst of her life is this constant duality between the hearing and the deaf. One day, she meets a movie director. This movie director has been through the same thing as her and Elsa can finally confide her feelings.