American Documentary

Overview

Brooklyn, N.Y. — September 16, 2024 — POV, the multi-Emmy® and Peabody award-winning documentary series presents first time filmmaker Taku Aoyagi’s deeply personal experiences as an UberEats rider in Tokyo Uber Blues. Shot in Japan during the 2020 Covid pandemic, shelter-in-place mandates have kept residents housebound, completely transforming the city’s social vibrancy to an urban desert. Aoyagi, a budding filmmaker is one of many rural youths grappling with mounting college debt and diminished work prospects in contemporary Japan.

Filmed almost entirely from the view of his bicycle, Aoyagi uses his GoPro and phone camera to film his experiences from fast paced delivery missions to turning the camera on himself as he attempts to connect with family, friends and strangers. Equal parts comical and melancholic, the diaristic Tokyo Uber Blues processes the effects of a worldwide pandemic as distilled by the day-to-day life as a gig worker.

Produced by Kazuo Osawa, Tokyo Uber Blues, marks Taku Aoyagi’s feature-length directorial debut. The documentary has been presented internationally to wide acclaim at Sheffield DocFest, DocPoint Helsinki International Film Festival and Mumbai International Film Festival among others.

Tokyo Uber Blues will make its national broadcast premiere on POV Monday, October 21, 2024 at 10PM/9C (check local listings) on PBS Television, and available to stream until January 19, 2025, at pbs.org, and the PBS App.

In addition to standard closed captioning for the films, POV, in partnership with audio description service DiCapta, provides real-time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities.

Now in its 37th season, POV continues to mark its place as America’s longest running non-fiction series.

POV’s Executive Producer, Chris White says, “Tokyo Uber Blues is a film for our times, capturing with both humor and gravity the challenges posted by our rapidly changing economies. Taku’s entry into the ‘gig’ labor forces at the height of the pandemic starkly highlights that our new systems aren’t necessarily working for the workers. This wry, personal look at a life of struggle is an exhilarating and sobering debut by a fresh new voice in the documentary field.”

“During the Covid months, when livelihoods and work environments changed, gig work was what supported me and my needs. There’s the seduction of this kind of work. It’s like playing a video game, you can’t stop,” said Taku Aoyagi. “Making profit instantly was the mandate. But my body experienced that I was becoming a cog in the wheel. Good or bad aside, I tried to make a movie that was physical and fun to watch. I'm so thrilled that the film is now reaching American audiences.”

The Covid pandemic struck down industry and commerce on an international scale unknown in recent history. Shuttered businesses and job loss was rampant and the availability for work, especially for young college graduates was dissipating. The gig economy was a key area where one could find work and the director, a film school graduate faced with the pressures of college debt and family obligation, saw UberEats as a path forward to financial recovery. Tokyo Uber Blues captures the filmmaker’s journey from rural Japan to the urban sprawl of Tokyo as he documents his work as an 'independent contractor,' under the thumb of a system that is, at once, exhilarating and exploitive.

Taku quickly discovers that there is no such thing as “easy money.” While he toils away on the desolate Tokyo streets, he seizes the opportunity to put that film degree to work and documents the highs and lows of his daily routine, using the ubiquitous cell phone to record his day-to-day reality becoming his own protagonist. Without other employment options, Taku fully thrusts himself into the cut-throat rewards-based world of the UberEats gig economy. Now fully engrossed in the competitive nature of the work, he becomes a willing participant in this gamification of labor. In one scene, as if stepping into the role of a first person character, a disheveled Taku embarks on a brutal night-time race-against-the-clock ride through Tokyo desperate to land a big payment and complete “The Quest.” The scene underscores the filmmaker’s fascination and subsequent submission to the “allure of the UberEats game, the sensation of becoming a slave to the algorithm, the pockets of oases in the Tokyo burnt-out desert!”

Tokyo Uber Blues is an immersive peek into Taku’s life, reflecting the full spectrum of his experience, not only the hardships and the struggle but his keen knack for survival. He proves himself to be a next-gen Ken Loach in making this film, a frank representation of his experience as a gig worker that nevertheless sparkles with his creativity and dry sense of humor. If the journey matters more than the destination, then the film stands as a reflection of one in the process of transformation, of living through adversity and coming out the other side perhaps more road weary but shaped by the experiences unique to its time and place. The documentary promises to hit home with an infinite number of struggling millennials and shines a light on one's potential in astutely telling his story.

Tokyo Uber Blues is a Japanese production. Taku Aoyagi is the director. Kazuo Osawa is the producer; Taku Aoyagi, Kiyoshi Tsujii, and Kazuo Osawa are the cinematographers; and Kiyoshi Tsujii is the editor. Erika Dilday and Chris White are the executive producers for American Documentary | POV.

Tokyo Uber Blues will be available for streaming concurrently with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. PBS station members can view many series, documentaries and specials via PBS Passport. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.

Theatrical dates:

• September 23, 24 - Laemmle Town Centre 5
• September 23, 24 - Laemmle Glendale
• September 23, 24 - Laemmle Monica Film Centre
• September 23, 24 - Laemmle Claremont 5
• September 30 - University of Southern California
• Opens October 2 - Darkside Cinema (Corvallis, Oregon)
• Opens October 4 - Lark Theatre (Larkspur, CA)
• October 4 & 6 Cleveland Cinematheque (Cleveland, OH)
• November 15 - Maysles (NYC)

Photos

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Credits

Director: Taku Aoyagi

Producers: Kazuo Osawa

Editor: Kiyoshi Tsujii

Cinematographers: Taku Aoyagi, Kiyoshi Tsujii, Kazuo Osawa

Sound: Taku Aoyagi

Language: Japanese with English subtitles

Countries: Japan

Year: 2023

About the Filmmakers

Taku Aoyagi, Director, Tokyo Uber Blues

Born 1993 in Yamanashi Prefecture. The documentary The Road He Walks: A Story of He-Kun (40 min) was his graduation film at the Japan Institute of the Moving Image and was released in cinemas nationwide in 2017. He documented the contemporary artist group Hyslom’s exhibition in Poland, and directed the short Digging a Well (2020). He was chosen among Top 100 Newcomer Artists by the prestigious art magazine Bijutsu Techo in 2021. Tokyo Uber Blues is his first feature.

Kazuo Osawa, Producer, Tokyo Uber Blues

Born 1975 in Tokyo. Independent documentary producer whose films include Backdrop Kurdistan (2008/Masaru Nomoto), Ugly Duckling (2010/Sayaka Ono/Hot Docs), Never Let Me Go (2010/Kazuya Tachikawa), The Cat That Lived a Million Times (2012/Tadasuke Kotani/Torino), The Legacy of Frida Kahlo (2015/Tadasuke Kotani/Hot Docs), Come on Home to Sato (2015/Yoshiki Shigee), Tagore Songs (2020/Mika Sasaki). His company nondelaico also theatrically distributes foreign documentaries such as Glittering Hands (2014/Bora Lee-Kil/Korea) and Richland (2023/Irene Lusztig).

About

About POV

Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. The series is known for introducing generations of viewers to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied, American Promise, Minding The Gap and Not Going Quietly, and innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras and Nanfu Wang. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. All POV programs are available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.

POV goes “beyond the broadcast” to bring powerful nonfiction storytelling to viewers wherever they are. Free educational resources accompany every film and a community network of thousands of partners nationwide work with POV to spark dialogue around today’s most pressing issues. POV continues to explore the future of documentary through innovative productions with partners such as The New York Times and The National Film Board of Canada and on platforms including Snapchat and Instagram.

POV films and projects have won 47 Emmy® Awards, 27 George Foster Peabody Awards, 16 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award. Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on social media.

About American Documentary, Inc.

American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia organization dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.

Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, the Open Society Foundations, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Park Foundation, and Perspective Fund. Additional funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Chasing the Dream and Peril and Promise public media initiatives of The WNET Group, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.

About PBS

PBS, with more than 330 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and digital content. Each month, PBS reaches over 120 million people through television and 26 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; and to take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’s broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. Decades of research confirm that PBS’s premier children’s media service, PBS KIDS, helps children build critical literacy, math and social-emotional skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality educational content on TV – including a 24/7 channel, online at pbskids.org, via an array of mobile apps and in communities across America. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook or through our apps for mobile and connected devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Communications on Twitter.