New York Japan CineFest 2014
When: Thursday, June 12, 2014 @ 6:30pm
Where: Asia Society,725 Park Ave, NYC
Co-presented by Asia Society and Mar Creation, Inc.
The third New York Japan CineFest will take place on June 12th and consist of six short films. I've had the opportunity to watch the films, almost all of them award winners. Here are some brief thoughts on them.
Minka
Directed by Davin Pardo
2011, 15 minutes
A touching documentary about a Japanese farmhouse that was relocated to become the home of John Roderick, an Associated Press photographer, and the narrator, a younger Japanese whom he adopted as his son.
Minka
Directed by Davin Pardo
2011, 15 minutes
A touching documentary about a Japanese farmhouse that was relocated to become the home of John Roderick, an Associated Press photographer, and the narrator, a younger Japanese whom he adopted as his son.
Abita
Directed by Shoko Hara and Paul Brenner
2012, 4 minutes
A lovely animation about a young girl, her watercolors and her dreams. Also about the impact of the Fukushima disaster.
Junk Head 1
Directed by Takahide Hori
2013, 30 minutes
Another animation, but one that uses puppetry and computer graphics. It's set many years in the future when a human is sent on an ecological study deep into the subterranean underground where clones, originally built to maintain them human workforce, live. Incredibly imaginative and marvelously executed.
The Misadventures of Incredible Dr. Wonderfoot
Directed by Grier Dill and Brett Glass
2013, 12 minutes
A very funny science fiction time travel tale about an elderly podiatrist and the havoc he has wrought.
Lil Tokyo Reporter
Directed by Jeffrey Gee Chin
2012, 30 minutes
A poignant drama sent in Los Angeles in the 1930s and centered on Sei Fuji (Chris Tashima), a forthright community leader and publisher of The Japanese California Daily News. In both looks and demeanor, Tashima's performance comes across much like a Japanese version of Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.Little Kyota Neon Hood
Directed by Satsuki Okawa
2012, 20 minutes
Poor ten-year-old Kyota wears a bright green padded hood because of a phobia. He lives with his single mother and can't understand why Tim, his English teacher, who has been away for a year, would return to disaster-prone Japan.
Films such as these, like documentaries, are often given "short shrift" (pun intended) by movie goers. But each of these films is well worth seeing, and together they make an outstanding program. Just how highly I think of them is the fact that, while I've already seen them all, I'm still planning to attend Thursday night's program at Asia Society. I hope to see you there.
Complete information about the roughly 111 minute long total program can be found here.
