”The Cats of Mirikitani”『ミリキタニの猫』by Linda Hattendorf 74 min U.S.A. Eighty-year-old Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of WWII internment camps, Hiroshima, and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy's painful past. An intimate exploration of the [Read more...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8SVFTxWvyc Kuroi-Ame (Black Rain) 1989 "I'm not to live to die. War's continued living in my body." A Japanese legend director, Imamura Shohei, a two-time Cannne Palm d'or winner whom Martin Scorsese called "my master," created this black and white film based on a novel by Ibuse Masuji. The film draws aftermath of the Hiroshima atomic bomb [Read more...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPiyO3b3N6w Synopsis Teijun Ogawa, a proud and rare niso (female priest) of Japanese Shingon Buddhist Sect, dies after telling her story to Reiko and Max, a Japanese couple based in New York. She told them about her desolate life since she was given to a temple at the age of seven, and her achievement of building the Enmyoin temple (transferred from Naoshima [Read more...]
Internationally acclaimed photographer, artist, documentary filmmaker, Akram Zaatari from Beirut, Lebanon. Growing up in a war-zone in the Middle east, being identified as an Arab artist, he has established his unique poetic photography and documentary work style. His works have exhibited MoMA in New York and other museums around the world. He is a founding member of the Arab Image Foundation for [Read more...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnKKgYD5m-U The Story of New Town (103 min, 2003) by Honda Takayoshi Around 1970's, in the Japan's high economic growth era, numerous new-towns (industrial towns) were born everywhere in Japan. Sanyo-Danchi in Okayama where the director Honda grew up was one of them. Ending the rapid growth which brought the people into the town with a full of hope for the [Read more...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66fTtqgL2kI The New God Director: Yutaka Tsuchiya 1999 99 min. Karin Amamiya has become a counter-culture icon in Japan, but she started out as the lead singer of the ultra-right wing punk band The Revolutionary Truth. With guitarist Hidehito Ito at her side Amamiya howls out nationalistic and vehemently anti-American lyrics… but is this how [Read more...]
Jacky is a Chinese kid aged 25 of emigrant parents who lives in a terraced house in Eindhoven with his mother. He grew up in the vacuum between two cultures. He is intelligent but lacks the energy to steer his life in a specific direction. Jacky’s calm life is disrupted when his mother urges him to marry a girl from China, following tradition, and leave the parental home. Before he realises he is [Read more...]