Mirrorball Music Video Festival

The “Mirrorball” Music Video Festival is being held this weekend (April 15th and 16th) at Ropppongi’s Super Deluxe. I was able to catch the “Best of the Best” session on Saturday.

Lena Oishi

The 1 hour 30 minute program featured the ‘best’ two films from each year during 1996-2005. Although most selected videos were by renown video-makers that have been featured in similar music video programs such as Resfest – Michel Gondry, Shynola, Spike Jonze, to name a few – the program managed to throw in a few surprises. The more recent videos especially stood out (the Audio Bullys’ video ‘We Don’t Care’ by Walter Stern was one of my favorites; cheeky and fun).

It is worth checking out a program or two just for the venue itself. The cozy Super Deluxe was scattered with cushions, chairs and benches around 3 screens (although the program was shown only on the middle screen). The bar is well-stocked, and people were seen smoking during screening, setting off a casual, homely vibe to the ‘festival’. The only qualm I had was the sound: a little too loud, especially for the rock songs (the volume was ok for the more bass-and-beat driven tracks).

Then again, this is probably the only chance you’d ever get to see these video clips in their full effect, full volume, on the big screen. Perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Lena Oishi

Articles

Lena Oishi

Born in Japan in 1982, grew up in England and Australia. With a BA in Media and Communications and MA in Cinema Studies, she now lives in Tokyo as a freelance translator and occasional editor. Works include VICE Magazine, Japanese editorial supervision of "Metronome No. 11 - <i>What Is To Be Done? Tokyo</i> " (Seikosha, 2007), and translation for film and art festival catalogs. She can also interpret simultaneously if you give her enough candy. Lena likes making her eyeballs bleed after watching way too many films while eating ice cream in the dark.

Articles

Back to Articles