Japanese Film Festival

[Alex Zahlten]

Dear Kinejapaners,



I would like to introduce this years 4th Nippon Connection Japanese Film
Festival-
as always, it will be held in Frankfurt, Germany, this time from the 14th to
18th of April.

We have 21 feature films in the Nippon Cinema program, with ZATOICHI
(Takeshi KITANO) opening the festival. Other films include 9 SOULS (Toshiaki
TOYODA), JOSEE, THE TIGER AND THE FISH (Isshin INUDO), DEAD END RUN (Sogo ISHII),
SHARA (Naomi KAWASE) or TOKYO GODFATHERS (Satoshi KON). There are several
German, European and international premieres in the program.

In the Nippon Digital Program we have slightly more screening slots, with a
wide mix of documentary, experimental and other films of various length,
totalling in over 120 films. This includes a PIA film festival special program, a
Video act! special program, short films from Planet Studyo+1, a special of
Koji YAMAMURAs animation, films like Yutaka TSUCHIYAs PEEP TV SHOW or
documentaries like THE STORY OF NEW TOWN or DANDELION. 

For the second time there will be a retrospective; after last years focus on
Shuji TERAYAMA, this year will be showing early Japanese animation, spanning
the period from 1924 (the year that the oldest extant Japanese animations
are from) to 1943, with 51 films. It will consist of 6 programs, each focusing
on different periods of early Jap. animation, such as silent animation, the
advent of sound, or animation in the war period. The last program deals with
propaganda animation, and is mixed with American anti-Japanese propaganda
animation.

In the Nippon Culture program there will be a number of lectures
accompanying the festival as well, and we are very proud to have several of Kinejapans
members included here as well- among others, Roland Domenig will be talking
about Contemporary Japanese Cinema, Tom Mes will talk about V-Cinema, Mark
Schilling will focus on Yakuza film, and Junko FUKATSU of the Asahi Shinbun will
reflect on the the position of Japanese film in Japanese society. A variety
of other lectures, workshops and events will take place, along with, as
always, parties, concerts, and simply a lot of ways to enjoy oneself!
These will also provide a chance to mingle with the guests we have invited
from Japan, among them directors and producers from all the program sections-

We would like to invite anyone interested in coming to the festival- if you
have any further questions, mail to info at nipponconnection.de or to me
directly. Almost all the films are subtitled in English (save for the
retrospective), so no one has to be afraid of problems with German.

Also more specific information on the program will be available on our
website (www.nipponconnection.de) soon, or those who can?t wait can write to me,
and I will send them a pdf file-
And oh yes, a ?Nippon Connection On Tour? event will be held in Leipzig from
the 22nd April to the 1st May, showing a selection of films screened in
Frankfurt.

We hope to see you at the festival!

Best regards,

Alex Zahlten



-- 
alex at nipponconnection.de

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