SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-CINEMA FESTIVAL will be held at SKIP CITY as the main venue in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture from March 20th to March 28th, 2004.

The festival aims to discover new talents, and contribute to the future development of the digital film and cinema industry internationally. The festival wishes that both the participants and audiences will together experience the charms of digital cinema introduced in Kawaguchi this spring.

This event celebrates the launch of the first SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-CINEMA FESTIVAL and includes five main programs and events.

The core screening program is the “D-Cinema International Competition”, consisting of seven features and eleven short films, selected from over 600 entries from 38 countries. The International Jury will announce prizes at the Awards Ceremony on the final day of the festival. The Kawaguchi Audience Awards are given to Japanese films shown at the Kawaguchi Special Screening. This Award is supported by Citizen’s Circle to Support SKIP CITY International D-Cinema Festival. This prize is aimed to support Japanese creators and to contribute to the development of the digital film industry and culture in Japan.

Three new films, which were shot digitally, are also presented in “Special Screening” programmes.

The panellists at the “Symposium” will engage in discussion about the future of digital film production and digital screen development internationally, and exchange insight and information about the current situation and trends regarding the installation of digital screens around the world.

Another element of the festival will be to hold a ”D-Contents Market”, establishing presentation booths for young creators and production companies. We hope it will give an opportunity for them to meet lots of people and develop new business opportunities.

The festival will also present a series of events called “Cinema Road” with a food and products fair and other events for participants and audiences to enjoy the festival in many ways.

D-Cinema International Competition　　
FEATURE LENGTH CATEGORY

Devcatko／Girlie　
（2002 / Czech / 83min. / Czech, Slovak / HD）　
Director : Benjamin Tucek
17-year-old Ema, living with her mother in a housing estate on the periphery of a metropolis, decides to be happy. To attain her dreams of happiness, she is willing to alternate partners, tell everyone openly what she thinks, and patiently count sheep before falling to sleep.
During her search, she finds herself in a stranger’s empty apartment, where she decides to stay even at the risk of being caught. Her persistent attempts to get to the heart of happiness turn into an experiment exceeding the bounds of convention. The story takes place in the present day, when over the course of no more than a few days, the fates of further characters rise to the surface: Ema’s mother, years ago abandoned by her husband and looking in dance classes for a second chance; Karel and Viktor, Ema’s latest lovers; and Istvan Dano, a cab driver without a cab and the only true man in Ema’s life.

EDDIE／EDI　
（2002 / Poland / 97min. / Polish / HD・DV）　
Director : Piotr Trzaskalski
Best friends Eddie and Jureczek make a living as a scrap-metal pickers on the streets of a big city. Our story begins when two gangster Brothers who rule the neighborhood beat a fellow scrap picker to death. This is the Brothers’ way of enforcing payments for illegally sold alcohol. A few days later the brothers come up with an extraordinary proposal for Eddie. They want him to tutor Princess, their 17 – year old sister whom they have been bringing up since the death of their parents. The Brothers choose Eddie because they know about his passion – Eddie is an avid reader, always keeping the books he finds in the garbage. Another reason is Eddie’s look – his ugliness is a guarantee that the feisty girl won’t sleep with him. Three months later it turns out that Princess is pregnant. The Brothers’ first suspicion falls on Gypsy – a young supplier of illegal alcohol who always been attracted to the girl. When, furious and determined, they swear to take a revenge, Princess protects her beloved by telling her Brothers that Eddie is the father.

Etegami／Pictorial Letter　
（2002 / Japan / 95min./ Japanese / DV）　
Director : Nobuteru Uchida
Nabeyama with many senses of failure spends a simple life drawing pictorial letters. One day, his friend comes to stay with him. They share the room smoothly at the beginning, but by the end of summer, their relationship changes and his friend leaves the room. Nabeyama feels so disappointed and spends a life of drunkenness, but he finds himself again and decides to have an exhibition of his pictorial letter collection.
This is a documentary following the small growth of imperfect people.


Ge shi／The Coldest Day　
（2003 / China / 100min./Chinese / HD）　
Director : Xie Dong
Xuezi, a Beijing lawyer, discovers his wife is having an affair with a young man. Having suffered the bitterness of his parent’s divorce, Xuezhi vows to save his marriage. At the same time, his wife, Xinmei, cannot make up her mind between her lover and her husband. Meanwhile, his client’s wife, Xiao Bai Cai, after refusing to bail out her jailed husband, wants to divorce her husband as she comes to know Xuezhi more deeply. Just as Xuezhi draws closer to Xiao Bai Cai, Xinmei decides to say goodbye to her lover and return to the family. Now Xuezhi is facing the same dilemma as his wife once did. For the sake of their little daughter, Xinmei proposes to sign a contract with Xuexhi to preserve their family for 15 years. However, the lawyer finds that it is beyond his capability to draft a contact for his marriage.This winter Solstice is unusually cold.

Inu to Arukeba –Chirori to Tamura-／Walking With The Dog　
（2003 / Japan / 105min./ Japanese / HD）
Director : Makoto Shinozaki
A young man, who was refused to put up with by his girl friend, accidentally finds a lost dog, Tamura.
He can’t abandon the poor dog even though he has nowhere to go and no job. He is at a loss, but at the same time, he happens to know about therapy dog on TV. He takes Tamura to the training house to give him practice, so that at least Tamura can find a place to stay, but somehow, he is also training to be a trainer with the dog. Through the life with Tamura, he encounters and experiences many things and learns the potential of human beings and the importance of relationships.

SALT／SALT
（2003 / Iceland=USA / 83min. / Icelandic / DV）
Director : Bradley Rust Gray
The film centers around the friendships and family life of a young girl, Hildur, who lives in a small fishing village on the East coast of Iceland. After her sister moves to the city, Hildur and her sister’s boyfriend, Aggi, decide to follow. When their car breaks down along the way, the two are forced to camp while they wait for the car to be fixed. Their friendship is challenged by the stress of their money situation and compounded by the danger of falling in love with each other. As their time comes to a close, Hildur realizes they cannot be together. She returns to their hometown alone and finds a magical way
to escape her isolated world.

Wilbur Begar Selvmord／Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself　
（2002 / Denmark / 105min. / English / HD）
Director : Lone Scherfig
Suicidal but witty Wilbur and his good-hearted older brother Harbour are in their 30’s when their father dies and leaves them a run-down second-hand bookshop. Wilbur survives a suicide attempt and goes to the hospital where he meets Horst, a cynical psychologist and his empathetic head nurse, Moira. Like, Harbour, they believe that he needs a girlfriend. But even though women fall for Wilbur all the time, they can’t get close to him. In fact, it is Harbour who falls in love when the shy and intense Alice enters the lives of the brothers. Alice lives a life in isolation with her little daughter, Mary. She supplements her job as a cleaning lady at the hospital’s surgery ward by selling books that patients have left behind. Little but little, Wilbur, Harbour and Alice become inseparable. Harbour has never been happier, but he carries a deep secret that threatens to surface.