Now on Amazon Instant Video...

 This online Video(Amazon Instant Video) contains my 2 short films.

 Both films were mainly shot in 2002, but some parts of them were shot/made in 2003( "Ritual of White Night") or even more later ("Lithuania: the twilight of the Gods").

 There are some interviews in them, which may seem to be "ideological" or "nationalistic". But if one watch them more carefully, it will be clear that I didn't have any ideological position when making them.

  

These documentaries are about "art " & "culture". Only those who can't discern them from "entertainment"and the products of "cultural industry" may think  that they are based on some kind of ideology.  I don't recommend them to the people who are eager to think and behave according to "global standards",  because the concepts of such "standards"doesn't match any kind of cultural and artistic activity of human being. 

Rhythm of theater NO and Japanese cinema

I think that few people has thought about the importance of rhythm in film art.
Western tradition of drama, starting from the time of Aristotle, has been developed mainly around such concepts as "story", "character" , "catalysis" and so on.

The structure of drama in this tradition was based on the development of "story", which is played by actors, imitating fictional, historical or legendary people. They are called "characters"and have their own personalities and backgrounds.
In the "story"in Western drama the climax must be led by the conflict (even if not so clear and distinctive) between them or the growing contradiction of the main character's situation among other characters.

On the other hand, in Japanese most ancient form of drama, theater NO, "story"and "character" are not exclusive constructing elements. As Zeami wrote, "Story"in theater NO must be divided into 3 parts according to the principle "Jo-Ha-Kyu".  This principle is utterly different from famous division of Aristotle; "Beginning, Middle and End".

The parts "Jo","Ha" and "Kyu" must have, according to Zeami, predetermined duration( in the play and its performance ) and each of them must have different tempo.
By Zeami's formula it is called "Jo-Ha-Kyu Go-Dan"(dan means "step").
It is a rhythmic principle, combined with rather fixed contents for each parts of the drama.
The structure of the drama looks very simple from Western view to the theater, but very complex from musicological or semantic point of view.

From semantic point of view, theater NO is a realization of true "informational polyphony"(the word used by R.Barthes for theater in general). From musicological point of view, it has a very complex set of canons for rhythmic structure and by them it embodies, in my opinion, "poly-rhythmic"structure.
Theses two aspects of theater NO will obtain much more complexity in the case of "Fukushiki Mugen No"(doubled dream play for theater NO). The genre most eloquently represents the aesthetic completion of this unique stage art.In addition, in this genre will be very interesting from narratological point of view.

Akira Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" was made on Zeami's tought "Jo-Ha-Kyu Go-Dan"  and its story is similar to those of  "Fukushiki Mugen No". Almost all of the fascinating effects of this film's dramaturgy came from that principle.
Kurosawa's next masterpiece "Ran" also owes a lot to dramaturgy of theater NO.
In each case, contrast and change of tempo, rhythmic structure is combined with growing instability of giegesis and gradual erasing of subjective-objective border in the way that Kurosawa interpreted the aesthetics of theater NO.

If turning our eyes to other classics of Japanese cinema, we will find "poly rhythmic"parts in some films of Kenji Mizoguch, too.

About this theme I have written 2 academic works in Japanese, 2 in Russian, 1 critical work for special edition for the journal Kinema junpo. They have not lost their value, but
I've never tried to translate them into English, as I have little time so far and I'm so "bad English" writer.

Paradox of Cultural policy

After the mid 2000s, something strange is happening in cultural policy in Japan.
Starting from late 1990s, Japanese government has kept supporting audio visual cultural industry with a hope of exporting "Cool Japan"cultural products. At first they gathered scholars, famous Manga-artists and some other people to make a general concept of "Media Geijutsu"(Media arts). This concept was the starting point with which, in their opinion, Japanese popular culture(with its related industries) could grow into the global-scale  source of income of the country.
It's natural that they thought the concept doesn't need any historical and academic accuracy in its definition. The concept included; Video-art, computer games, ANIME, MANGA, installation, and among  the others, cinema(practically ignored now)

To some extent their initial intention  was realized. But only in the limited fields.
The reality of cultural industry is not defined by abstract concepts, "promotion" and  "marketing" by advertising companies and donations by the government.
One graduate school intended to bring up "producers" has recently gone bankrupt and ended its very short life because of the absence of the demand(its foundation was approved by the government in the mid 2000s).  Specialists of "marketing", "financial engineering" , "accounting",  producers of TV and films could do nothing to improve the financial situation of the school. Now it's clear that it was dead-born child from the start.
Why did it happen?
First, any movement of culture and art can't be controlled, be predicted by mere  economic theory or collected works of interdisciplinary researches. In addition, the starting point, the concept  "Media arts" had not gone through the check of experienced historian and theorist of cinema, popular culture and others academic fields. The dominance of economics has misled the cultural policy of Japan for these 10-15 years.  
As financial "derivatives" that caused world economic crisis in these years, economic-centered cultural policy and its "derivatives", like the concept of "Media  arts" will lead the human races to the soulless dead-end.