Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2010

Jeremy Veverka
Film producer and photographer

Tell us about your background.
(Jeremy) We’re a brother team, born in Ithaca, New York, but our family is originally Czech, by way of Canada. We’ve been working with film, music and photography in various capacities for at least half our lives. Recently we formed a production company called Veverka Bros. Productions LLC.

Veverka is an unusual name…
(Jeremy) Yeah, it actually means “squirrel” in Czech.

What brought you to Japan?
(Jesse) Laughs. For me, I guess it was originally Japanese animation. I was a big otaku in high school and started learning Japanese when I was 15. It was always a goal to go study in Japan, so I moved here in 2007 and then did the IUC language program in Yokohama in 2008, while working on film.

Tell us about some of your projects.
(Jesse) We just finished our first feature-length documentary, China: The Rebirth of an Empire. It deals with a question that I think is on everyone’s minds, but doesn’t get talked about enough: what type of superpower is China becoming? The world is so interconnected now that the answer will have a profound effect on everyone. That’s a pretty broad question.

(Jeremy) Well, we wanted to look at the big picture and show that a whole range of issues such as free trade, Islamic fundamentalism, North Korea’s nuclear program, the pro-Tibet movement and even American militarism relate to what is going on with China.

Jesse Veverka
Film producer and writer

We interview Chalmers Johnson, author of the Blowback trilogy, and he does a brilliant job tying things together.

When can we see it?
(Jesse) We are currently submitting to film festivals and plan to release it publicly later this year. In the meantime, you can check out our recent documentary short, Malana: Globalization of a Himalayan Village, available on Amazon.

What have you got coming up?
(Jeremy) In June we are going to India to shoot a fictional short called Bus to Somewhere.

What challenges have you found working on documentaries in Asia?
(Jesse) Japan can be a bit tough because society is very reserved, which makes everything from securing permissions to finding subjects more difficult. On the other hand, there is relatively good freedom of the press here, especially compared to China. For example, some of the issues we deal with, like the Falun Gong, [activist] Rebiya Kadeer and Uyghur independence, would not be possible to cover openly in China.

What’s one thing everyone should do in Tokyo before they leave?
(Jesse) Go visit the Yushukan museum at Yasukuni Jinja. It commemorates imperial Japan’s militaristic activities leading up to and during World War II. It’s a real reminder of the horrors that humans are capable of inflicting on other humans and an eye-opening contrast to Japan’s plastic pop-culture cuteness.

For more info about China: The Rebirth of an Empire, see www.chinarebirth.com and www.facebook.com/chinarebirth. For more information about Malana: Globalization of a Himalayan Village, see www.facebook.com/malanadoc.
www.veverkabros.com