Japan Film Festival: Talk and Symposium

Hi Blog,

Sorry for the radio silence-- or is that blog silence?Anyway, there's a new member of the family now-- and my time has been very happily taken up by her.

Next month, here in LA, there will be a Japanese film festival called appropriately: The Japan Film Festival. I have been asked to participate in the symposium on April 5th entitled: "Japanese Films in the US: Past, Present and Future."

As part of this, I will be giving a 15-20 minute talk about Japanese films in the US (the exact topic of which I am working out at the moment) and then will be participating in a moderated conversation.

From the JFF site:

UCLA Symposium (presented by JFFLA and UCLA-JABA)

Date & Time: April 5th (Sat)　Entrance opens at 3pm
Start at 3:15pm
Close about 7pm

Venue: 　UCLA Anderson School of Management　Korn Hall, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095

Theme: Japanese Films in the US: Past, Present, and Future

The actual Japan Film Festival will run from the 11th to the 17th of April at the newly built Imaginasian Theater here in downtown LA. I wrote about its opening here.

The fest will then continue on from the 18th through the 20th, at the Starplex Cinemas in Irvine. All of this info, along with the list of films playing can be found on their site.

I will add that one of the most exciting films that they're showing, which I plan to catch is Nakajima Ryo's PIA Film Fest award winning feature THIS WORLD OF OURS. Jason Gray was the first person I know of to raise world awareness to this film and considering his high praise, I'm very excited to see it. (Jason Gray's post.)

More info to come...

Kurosawa Akira 100th Anniversary Exhibition in Los Angeles in 2009 or 2010?

Hi Blog,

Jason Gray wrote last week on his blog about how timed with Kurosawa Akira's 100th anniversary of his birth (1910~2010) the Kurosawa Production Company will be hosting (with other sponsors) film screenings, exhibitions and festivals dedicated to the deceased master director.

Knowing that I live in Los Angeles, Jason Gray forwarded an announcement posted on the Cinema Topics Online that makes mention of the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ® helping host an exhibit on Kurosawa here in Los Angeles. It's not clear when it is set to happen, but considering that the anniversary celebrations are set to run from November 2008 through June 2010, I think we can safely guess that it will occur during this time period.

I also suspect that whatever exhibit is created will probably travel-- but don't quote me on that.

Thanks Jason for the link!

Here's a link to Kurosawa shilling for a whiskey company!

And here's a link to Kurosawa shooting the breeze with a young Beat Takeshi!