Mayumi Yoshida on Making Akashi and Changing Telefilm’s Rules

Mayumi Yoshida spent nine years turning a deeply personal idea into her first feature film, Akashi—writing, directing, producing, and starring in a story that crosses generations, countries, and languages.In this episode, Mayumi reveals how a conversation with her grandmother evolved from a stage play into an award-winning short and, eventually, a critically acclaimed feature. She also breaks down the fight to finance an 80% Japanese-language Canadian film—and how she and a coalition of filmmakers helped push Telefilm Canada to remove a policy that prevented many multilingual stories from qualifying for funding.We also discuss:* Directing herself while leading an international cast* Shooting in Vancouver and Japan on an extremely compressed schedule* How losing six production days shaped the film’s visual language* Rehearsing film scenes like theatre to survive two- and three-take days* Cutting a completed two-hour version down to 100 minutes* Using black and white, colour, production design, and sound to explore memory* Why filmmakers should choose stories they can remain committed to for a lifetime* The importance of knowing when you are—and are not—the right person to tell a storyAkashi premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival, where it won the Audience Choice Award, and went on to receive major recognition at the Whistler Film Festival, Reel Asian, and the Leo Awards.Follow Ken's Indie Horror Feature Remnant here:www.remnantmovie.comFollow Ken Kabatoff's newsletter here:The Film FounderFollow Anthony Epp's newsletter here:The Greenlight ReportFollow Ken & Anthony on Instagram here:@ken_kabatoff@epptri