Alfen records experiences of
a foreigner living in Tokyo

a Diary of an Alien, Tuesday
29th and Wednesday
Atcust 30th, 8:30pm at the
Blinding Light Cinema, 36
Powell St., Vancouver.

Katharine Hamer

News Reporter
khamer@nsnews.com

TOKYO, 1997: a blur
of neon rain and street
stalls like the night-time
sequences from Blade
Runner, except there is
no Harrison Ford, no
white faces at all.

This is the opening
sequence of Diary ofan Alien
— a short film by Vancouver
director Ellen Raine Scott
based on her experiences as an
English teacher in Japan.

The trip was Scott’s way of
taking time out after vears
immersed in film studies and
projects. What she saw,
though, intrigued ber so much
that she felt compelled to put
herself back behind a camera.

Over multilayered images,
extracts of Scott's diary are
read like a long poem, in the
sultry tones of North
Vancouver actress Sarah

Chalke.
“Everything here is both
. seductive and impulsive at
once,” Scort has written. “I’m
not sure whether I’m sup-
posed to be a spectator or an
observer.”
The camera cuts between

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visions of modern-day, high-
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Toshiba sundresses, salary men
wearing virtual reality goggles,
vending machines with beer,
cigarettes, the stolen under-
wear of foreigners, gaijin —
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Scott spent most of her
time in Japan based in a little
fishing village and hour and a
half outside Tokyo. “I was the
only non- Japanese person, and
the first female foreigner to

ever live in the town,” she
says.

“Needless to say, I gor
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Co-Dependoent Films

ELLEN Raine Scott's film about her Japanese experience, Diary of an Alien,
screens next week at Gastown’s Blinding Light cinema.

Scott quickly discovered
there was “a whole alphabet
for foreign words,” and that
some Japanese social traditions
seemed harsh to Western eyes.

In one of the film’s most
stark, puignant moments, she
recounts the story of a
woman, a neighbour, who is
beaten by her husband, over
the still symbolism of a tea cer-
emony. The woman hides in
Scott's closet with her blood-
streaked and battered face and
apologizes for getting the tata-
mi mat dirty.

See Tokyo Page 16

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Park & Tilford
Cineplex

200 — 333 Brooksbank,
North Vancouver (985-
3911)

Hollow Man (1SA) —
9:35 p.m.

What Lies Beneath ()4A)
— 6:55, 9:40 p.m.

Nutty Professor 2: The
Klumps (14A) — 9:25 p.m
X-Men (PG) — 1:55, 7: 10)

p.m.
The Cell (1SA) — 1:30,
7:25, 9:55 p.m.

Saving Grace (PG) — I,
6:50, 9:10 p.m.

Most Valuable Primate
(G) 2:05 p.m.

Godzilla 2000 (PG) —
1:45, 7:15 p.m.

Bring It On (PG) — 1:15,
7, 9:30 p.m.

§ Esplanade 6 Cinemas
200 W. Esplanade, North
Vancouver (983-2762)
Autumn in New York —
1:20, 4:05, 7:25, 9:55
p.m.

Chicken Run — 1:25 p.m.

See Cinemas Page 18

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