New UK Japanese film festival Zipangu Fest warms up for the main event

[Jasper Sharp]

Apologies for posting this press release, but I figured there's going to be more people on this mailing list interested in this UK based festival than on any other mailing list.
Jasper





Zipangu
Fest
Japanarchy
in the UK



The
first UK‐wide festival devoted to Japanese cinema November 23‐28
2010 http://zipangufest.com
Monday
October 18th 2010



New
Japanese film festival Zipangu Fest warms up for the main event with
a string of exclusive lectures and rare archive screenings across the
country



The
first Zipangu Fest is delighted to announce more details for its
programme of events this autumn. The festival will run from November
23th to 28th 2010 in London’s East End before touring the country.
The full programme will be announced by Festival Director Jasper
Sharp at the Barbican’s Japanese Halloween Shlockfest Double Bill
of RoboGeisha and Big Tits Zombie 3D + Augmented City 3D on October
29th.



To
whet audience appetites, Mr Sharp will be presenting a lecture
exploring the history of independent jishu eiga filmmaking in Japan,
followed by an exclusive screening of Annyong Kimchee (1999). The
film is Japanese‐Korean filmmaker Tetsuaki Matsue’s personal
enquiry into the importance of ethnic and cultural roots and what it
means to be Japanese. This event will first be held at the Coventry
University East Asian Film Society (CUEAFS) at 2pm on Wednesday
October 20th in Room G34 of the university’s Ellen Terry Building,
and then at the University of London’s School of Oriental and
African Studies (SOAS) at 7pm on Friday November 12th, in the Brunei
Gallery lecture theatre.



Zipangu
Fest is also proud to announce a special presentation at the 24th
Leeds International Film Festival of Hiroshi Shimizu’s rarely‐seen
early classic of independent Japanese cinema, Children of the Beehive
(1948). The film relates the journey of a group of war orphans (in
real life all orphans taken in and raised by the director) as they
are taken under the wing of a nameless soldier and set out across a
shattered, post‐ war landscape in search of a more certain future.
The film will be showing first on Saturday 6 November as part of a
one‐day symposium, Breaking Boundaries: Alternative Approaches to
Japanese Film, organised by the University of Leeds, and then at 7pm
on Monday November 8th at the Hyde Park Picture House. Tickets are
£6.50/£5.00.



Zipangu
Fest has also put together a special programme of Japanese
underground animation in collaboration with the Encounters 16th
International Film Festival in Bristol. The Ero Guro Anime Night
programme, a selection of nightmarishly morbid animations from the
Japanese underground, will screen at the Cube Microplex on Friday
November 19th at 8pm. Zipangu Fest festival director Mr Sharp and
Man‐ Eater Mountain sound designer Takuro Kochi will be there to
introduce the programme. The screenings will be followed by a Late
Night Japanese Pink Double Bill of Sexy Timetrip Ninjas (1984) and
Groper Train: Search for the Black Pearl (1984), two deliriously
tasteless comic classics of the pink film genre directed by Yojiro
Takita, now famous as the winner of the 2008 Best Foreign Film
Academy Award for the drama
Departures.
Doors open at 11pm. The Late Night Japanese Pink Double Bill has been
made possible by Pink Eiga.



Leading
up to Zipangu Fest’s much‐awaited London festival dates, Zipangu
Fest has worked with Close‐Up to present the Nippon Year Zero
programme of 1960s Japanese experimental films on Tuesday November
23th, at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.
Zipangu
Fest has confirmed the festival venues of Café 1001 in Brick Lane
and the Genesis Cinema on Mile End Road. Guests can expect two full
nights of entertainment from 6pm on November 24th and 25th, for the
modest ticket price of £5.00 per evening. Zipangu Fest will launch
into full swing for the weekend from November 26th to 28th at the
Genesis Cinema in Whitechapel. Tickets will be £7.50/£5.00.



Following
this, a selection of the Zipangu Fest festival programme will be
screened at the Arnolfini in Bristol between December 16th and 19th,
with further venues to be announced at a later date.
Jasper
Sharp comments: “I’m really excited about these upcoming events
across the country, because the goal with Zipangu Fest was always to
reach out to new audiences and introduce Japanese cinema to as wide
and diverse a crowd as possible. We’re really happy to be
partnering up with so many respected film festivals and other
organisations to this end, and I really hope this is something we
will be able to expand on in the future. I also can’t wait to
announce the main programme. We’ve got a really strong set of films
and a host of guests already confirmed, and there’s going to be
plenty more going on around the actual festival dates than just the
screenings.”
For
further press information please contact: Michelle at zipangufest.com



Visit
the Zipangu Fest website at http://zipangufest.com.
‐ END ‐



About
Zipangu Fest



The
first UK‐wide festival devoted to Japanese film, Zipangu Fest will
introduce works new and old, previously unseen by mainstream UK film
audiences, to demonstrate the many identities of Japan as depicted by
some of the country’s most exciting and revered talents.



For
its main event this year, Zipangu Fest will be holding around 15
screenings and other related events at venues across London’s
vibrant East End. Cinema venues include the Barbican, Genesis Cinema
in Whitechapel, Café 1001 in Brick Lane and the Working Men’s Club
in Bethnal Green. The main body of film events will take place in
London from November 23rd to 28th 2010, with regional events
currently arranged in Bristol, Leeds and Coventry, and more to be
confirmed.






 		 	   		  
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