Yasukuni Screening at Nippon Connection

[Alex Zahlten]

Tomorrow (Sunday) Yasukuni will be screened at Nippon Connection in Frankfurt; the controversy surrounding the screening (or non-screening) of the film has reached the film festival as well. We had several events planned for Sunday afternoon, but the greater part of the Japanese filmmakers at the festival protested, saying they desperately wanted to see the film, as they had no guarantee they would be able to see it in Japan- we scheduled a special early morning screening for our guests to allow for them to see the film and take part in some of the events we had planned.

A Japanese news agency is sending a camera team to cover audience reaction regarding the film, and the Asahi Shinbun site has reported that the film will be screening at Nippon Connection. There are several employees from Japanese governmet-funded organizations that were specifically sent to Frankfurt to take a look at the festival and the Yasukuni screening (as I have, inofficially, heard from them personally). 

The podium dicsussion today inevitably veered towards the "Yasukuni" screening problem; it fit quite well, of course, that it had initially been planned as treating the topic of film and politics in Japan. Nobuhiro Yamashita, Jason Gray, Kishu Izuchi, Yasutomo Chikuma, Go Jibiki and myself talked about the development of what politics might mean for filmmakers in Japan today- maybe someone from the list who was there can write about their impression?

Alex
-- 
alex at nipponconnection.de

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