Two Essential Asian Documentaries Uploaded

You hear so many horrible accidents and crimes from TV and newspapers. But they don't surprise you any more. You may think they are just a part of your daily life. Since around 2000 in Korea, there have been tons of strange murders. There are no killers and no suspects, but people are murdered every day. Someone calls them, "social murders". However, these everyday terrible crimes do not shock anybody. They are just filling a small corner of a newspaper. No alarms and no surprises. No efforts to stop them. What has thrown you into such a dead apathy?

Soap dramas are still attracting many people all over the world. It means old orders are so strong and sturdy that they are moving the world even after they seem to have disappeared.

"Kansai Kouen" is a documentary and ongoing project dedicated to inform and connect concerned people with the struggle of the No-juku-sha (park squatters and/or rough sleepers) for living in human dignity in Osaka and all over Japan. We believe that Kansai Kouen can help people approach this issue as well as provide the chance to connect and show solidarity with the No-juku-sha, their proud and interesting way of life, actions and resistance. We hope that "Kansai Kouen" can serve as an instrument for articulation and reflection on the inside and outside of public space, day labor, precarity and the struggle of the No-juku-sha. Everywhere in parks and on the river banks of Osaka rivers, one sees blue tents or barracks covered with blue plastic tarps, at times scattered throughout park areas, sometimes lined up in rows, or united to form small communities. The term homelessness only insufficiently describes the situation of these 「nojyukusha」, the campers in the rough. These squatters are the daily inhabitants of public space. But just as Japanese society has traditionally little known nor appreciated public space as a public forum, likewise are squatters and homeless people, who live in these spaces, disrespected.

The video essay Public Blue was produced in collaboration with Nojyukusha and supporters in Osaka. Public Blue follows their political action and sketches impressions of the Japanese understanding of the public and the political. Used now as a tool during the struggle against evictions of tents in Osaka, the documentary also becomes a vehicle of articulation for those who are living on the outside of Japanese society.

www.kansaikouen.org