Film klub / Proč potřebujeme demokracii? - Asie / Dálný východ
18.2., 20:00
MeetFactory Film Club in cooperation with Goethe Institut Prague.
(with English subtitles)
Please Vote for Me
Weijun Chen /Dánsko/Čína/ 2007/ 52 min.
Wuhan is a city in central China about the size of London, and it is here that director Weijun Chen has conducted an experiment in democracy. A year 3 class at Evergreen Primary School has their first encounter with democracy, by holding an election to select a Class Monitor. Eight-year olds compete against each other for the coveted position, abetted and egged on by teachers and doting parents. Elections in China take place only within the Communist Party, but recently millions of Chinese voted in their version of Pop Idol. The purpose of Weijun Chen’s experiment is to determine how, if democracy came to China, it would be received. Is democracy a universal value that fits human nature? Do elections inevitably lead to manipulation? Please Vote for Me is a portrait of a society and a town through a school, its children and its families.
Campaign! The Kawasaki Candidate
Kazuhiro Soda / Japan, USA / 2007 / 53 min.
Can a candidate with no political experience and no charisma win an election? Perhaps - if he is backed by political giant, Prime Minister Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). In the fall of 2005, 40-year-old, self-employed Kazuhiko “Yama-san” Yamauchi’s peaceful, humdrum life was turned upside-down when Koizumi’s LDP party chose him at the last moment as its official candidate to run for a vacant seat on the Kawasaki City Council. With zero experience in politics, no charisma, no supporters, and no constituency, Yama-San has one week to prepare for an election critical to the future of the LDP. Adhering to the campaign tactic of “bowing to everybody, even to telephone poles,” Yama-san visits local festivals, senior gatherings, commuter train stations, and even bus stops to offer his hand to everyone he sees. Can he win this heated race? “Campaign! The Kawasaki Candidate” offers up a microcosm of Japanese democracy.
Admission: 50kč
