[KineJapan] Japan/Youth/Disasters film and lecture series in Philadelphia

[William Gardner]

Dear kinejapan colleagues, 




We are planning a series of film events for March and April here in the Philadelphia area. 

Highlights include a screening of the documentary A2-B-C with director Ian Ash and a guest lecture by Nagoya University Prof. Hideaki Fujiki, happening just after the Association for Asian Studies meeting in Philadelphia. 

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“Japan at the Brink: Precarity of Youth in Films of Disaster and Dystopia” 

A series of four films presented at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute 




www.brynmawrfilm.org 





Selected to represent a range of forms and moments in Japanese cinema history this series curated by local Tri-College students takes as its theme the depiction of Japanese youth during social upheaval in real and imagined worlds. “Precarity of youth” refers to children’s roles in these momentous times. Shifting between positions of vulnerability and influence, children in these films tell stories displaying contradictory points of hope and hopelessness. While the extensive record of natural and man-made disasters has altered Japan’s landscape, the impact of disasters on younger generations is revealed as a mechanism of social critique and potential transformation. 






Twenty Four Eyes 

Monday, March 3, 7:00 pm, Bryn Mawr Film Institute 

(NR) Japan - 2 hr 36 min 

1954 · d. Kinoshita Keisuke http://www.criterion.com/films/745-twenty-four-eyes 

Starring Hideko Takamine, Chishu Ryu, Toshiko Kobayashi, Yumeji Tsukioka 



Set in 1928, Twenty-Four Eyes follows Hisako Oshi, a young schoolteacher guiding twelve innocent students from childhood to adulthood as they are forced to face war and society’s problems. Through the eyes of these twelve children and their teacher, the film bears witness to fragility and moral responsibility amidst events and circumstances of World War II. 



Akira 

Monday, March 17, 7:00 pm, Bryn Mawr Film Institute 

(R) Japan – 2 hr 4 min 

1988 · d. Ōtomo Katsuhiro http://www.funimation.com/shows/akira/anime 

Starring Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Mitsuo Iwata, Tesshô Genda, and Hiroshi Ôtake 



In this animated feature set in the dystopian world of Neo-Tokyo, a teenage outcast biker develops supernatural powers and retaliates against corrupt authorities but risks losing a part of himself. Filled with visceral imagery and dark themes full of adolescent angst, the film is a cult classic and widely recognized as a landmark of Japanese anime. 



Himizu 

Monday, March 24, 7:00 pm, Bryn Mawr Film Institute 

Japan – 2 hr 9 min 

2012 · d. Sion Sono http://thirdwindowfilms.com/films/himizu 

Starring Shota Sometani, Fumi Nikaido, Tetsu Watanabe, Mitsuru Fukikoshihi, Megumi Kagurazaka, and DenDen 



Based on Minoru Furuya’s manga of the same name Himizu illustrates consequences of cataclysmic disaster. With filming interrupted by 3.11, Sono’s vision of a post-disaster world became prophetic of actual chaotic circumstances. Told from the perspective of two teenagers the story of parental neglect and unspoken love asks if the corrupt may still be redeemed. 



A2-B-C 

Monday, March 31, 7:00 pm, Bryn Mawr Film Institute 

Japan – 1 hr 11 min 

2013 d. Ian Thomas Ash http://www.a2documentary.com/ 



Eighteen months after the 3.11 nuclear disaster, children of Fukushima Prefecture have begun developing thyroid abnormalities. Although declared harmless, the ambiguity of official medical test reports and the decrease in children’s overall health have left mothers to take radiation monitoring into their own hands. Please join Professor of Film, Hideaki Fujiki (Nagoya University) and Director Ian Thomas Ash for discussion and conversation after tonight’s screening. 




Related event: 



"Audience and Action: Recent Citizen Activism and Cinema" 



a lecture by Hideaki Fujiki, 

Professor of Cinema, Nagoya University 



Tuesday, April 1, 4:30 pm 



Center for Visual Culture 

Thomas 154 

Bryn Mawr College 



Professor Fujiki, the author of Making Personas: Transnational Film Stardom in Modern Japan , will give a talk on recent citizens' use of cinema as a tool for activism against nuclear technologies. In light of continued international impact and developing effects of the Fukushima 3.11 Triple Disaster, Fujiki will present on how screening events by citizens function as a vital point of convergence and divergence in the formation of multilayered networks in the anti-nuclear movement after the nuclear catastrophe. 


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This series is an independent study project by 

the students of Bryn Mawr’s 360° Course Cluster 

“Perspectives on Sustainability: Disasters and Rebuilding in Japan,” 

funded by the Japan Foundation. 

The independent study is directed by Prof. Tienfong Ho (Bryn Mawr College/Temple University), 

with support from Profs. Will Gardner (Swarthmore College), Carola Hein (Bryn Mawr College), 

Tomoko Sakomura (Swarthmore College), and Erin Schoneveld (Haverford College). 



http://brynmawr.edu/360/previous/SustainabilityJapan.htm 




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