With all the excitement over the death of Osama Bin Laden, the UN’s military intervention in Libya and other news related to the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings, the Royal Wedding in Britain and the recent blow to any possibility of electoral reform to our antiquated democratic system, and of course, last weekend’s Nippon Connection, it seems that the ongoing situation in the north of Japan has well and truly slipped off the international news radar.

I’m not going to attempt to broach any of these other subjects above, but it dawned on me that I haven’t been posting any of Ian Thomas Ash’s latest videos from the area recently. Admittedly, his own updates have been fewer and further between recently, but in the absence of any other news coverage over here, they’re getting increasingly more interesting and relevant.

Here, then, are two of Ian’s recent updates. The first, in which he travels to the affected city of Ishishinomaki, is about a month old now, and we actually screened it at the Zipangu Fest charity fundraiser before the various animations by CALF. The second, just uploaded yesterday, sees Ian visiting the town of Minamisoma, first entering the evacuation zone 20-30 km from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

There’s actually been a number of further videos posted by Ian over the past month, and the In the Radiation Zone: The Children of Minamisoma City video is being uploaded in further instalments, so I strongly recommend you visit Ian’s Youtube channel Documenting Ian if you want to take a look at some of the ones I’ve not put on this website. Ian has also been contributing a number of entries to his blog detailing what’s been going on behind the scenes while he’s been shooting his video bulletins.

Here seems a good time to mention, before we watch the videos, the amazing job done by the Nippon Connection team with their Help Japan! project, with a great party last Saturday and profits from the screenings earning a lot of money for the cause. Details about this in German can be found here.

And finally, if you want to make a donation to the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund here in the UK, follow this link here.

Ishinomaki City, after the tsunami, 27 March 2011

In the Radiation Zone: The Children of Minamisoma City, Part 1, 5 May 2011

Posted at 15:31 on 06 May 2011 Filed under news.

• Tagged
• Earthquake
• Ian Thomas Ash
• Nippon Connection

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Event: Nippon Connection Japanisches Filmfestival

Where: Frankfurt Am Main, Germany

When: Wed 27 April – Sun 1 May 2011

From April 27 to May 1, 2011, Nippon Connection in Frankfurt am Main will show exciting and creative cinema from Japan for the eleventh time. The preparations for the festival are already in full swing. Once more, Nippon Connection will present a broad range of avantgarde, anime, blockbusters and documentaries with more than 100 of the latest Japanese short and feature films, many of them screened as German, European or international premieres and accompanied by the presence of film-makers and actors.

Aside from the film program Nippon Connection will also give you the chance to experience various aspects of Japanese culture – from “pop art” to high culture. Prepare to be amazed!

Highlights this year include a comprehensive Sion Sono retrospective.

Posted at 15:02 on 27 April 2011 Filed under events.

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• Sion Sono

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I’ve had my hands incredibly full these past few weeks, if you’re wondering at all why I’ve not been posting much recently, and I still have a few loose ends to tie up here before I get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning and head to Nippon Connection for my seventh year running. Yes, hard to believe, but it’s already been a year since we were all stranded in Frankfurt by the Icelandic volcano whose name no one could ever pronounce. There are plenty of goodies on offer again this year, including a CALF Animation Special & Independent Animation Filmmakers’ Talk moderated by Cathy Munroe Hotes of Nishikata Film Review featuring Mirai Mizue, Nobuaki Doi and Tochka on 29 April · 18:00 – 21:30.

This presents me with the opportunity to mention that the CALF collectives’ work has proved extremely popular in the UK of late – we got a great turnout at the Zipangu Fest / CALF charity fundrasiser for the Tohoku Earthquake on Sunday 2 April (thanks once again to Phil and the wonderful staff at the Roxy for helping this happen), and 7 April saw a sell-out screening of the programme at Newcastle’s Star & Shadow screening where the staff had to carry sofas into the theatre to cram all the customers in!

Pixilate to Heal - the audience get involved at the CALF fundraiser at the Roxy, 3 April 2011

The UK-based animator Miho Lomon was present at the Roxy screening where she invited the audience to participate in her Pixilate to Heal – Japan Tsunami Appeal animation project (check the facebook page for more info). Hopefully her movie will be up on youtube soon so I can post a link to it on this website. Tochka also worked their animation magic to lend a voice of support to the earthquake victims, which I’m posting below.

Anyway, I may or may not post bulletins from Nippon Connection over the next few days, depending upon how busy I am, but this is just a promise to say once I’m back, I will post the final installment of my Widescreen Weekend report, so watch this space…

Posted at 15:54 on 26 April 2011 Filed under news.

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• CALF
• Cathy Munroe Hotes
• Earthquake
• Miho Lomon
• Mirai Mizue
• Nippon Connection
• Nobuaki Doi
• Pixilate to Heal
• Roxy Bar and Screen
• Star and Shadow
• Tochka
• Volcano
• Zipangu Fest

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