A Permanent Part-Timer in Distress
Hiroki Iwabuchi, 2009, 69 min
Japanese with English subtitles

When he failed to get a job in the publishing industry after graduating, Hiroki Iwabuchi found himself working as a factory worker assembling printer cartridges. Against a backdrop of loose regulations, a decrease in job security and poor prospects for younger workers, he started filming himself. Pondering his future, he joins worker protests and becomes the subject of a news documentary that causes him to question the representation of workers in the mainstream media, all the while taking on more temp jobs to supplement his low wage. Overlaid by an endearing, introspective voiceover, A Permanent Part-Timer in Distress is a poignant account from inside Japan’s gig economy.

Dialogue
Yuka Sato, 2018, 17 min
Japanese with English subtitles

An experimental documentary and poetic mood piece that charts the cautious re-emergence of a self-described social recluse into a dazzling urban metropolis after a period of withdrawal.

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Screening as part of our Cinema of the Self: Personal Documentary in Japan programme and Japan 2020: Over 100 years of Japanese Cinema, a UK-wide film season supported by National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network. bfijapan.co.uk