Well, we had our doubts about how many would actually come in the end, but personally I couldn’t be more chuffed about how the opening night of Shinsedai went. I wasn’t counting heads, but I’d say there weren’t a whole load of empty seats left over in the 360-seat venue of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Center, and lots of people coming up to thank James Heron of the JCCC, Chris MaGee and I for making this happen, screening the sort of films from Japan that don’t usually get shown in North America.
The evening kicked off with a reception in which thanks were given to our sponsors by James, then a witty presentation from the president of Subaru Canada, the company that contributed the substantial amount of money that allowed this event to happen. The latter, Yokoyama-san, got a whole load of kudos from me after recalling his movie-watching youth hanging around the legendary ATG cinema in Shinjuku, and reeling off a whole load of names of Japanese directors before settling on his favourite, the mighty Shohei Imamura (which reminds me, I’ve some exciting Imamura news to share within the next week). Speeches were completed, all guests were brought to the stage, a toast was raised, much sake was quaffed and sushi scoffed, and photos taken, including some of me and Chris with our default poster girl, Thunderfish’s Junko Kimoto, which I’ll somehow insert into this posting as soon as I get access to one of them.
Naked of Defenses
The films went down really well too: I’d not yet seen Naked of Defenses, the Grand Prix Winner from last year’s Pia Film Festival, but it was a brilliant one to open with, a hugely moving and inventive tale that really reminded me exactly what it was that got me attracted me to Japanese cinema in the first place – we’ve got a review of this popping up on Midnight Eye soon, but I’ll say now its already among my favourites of the year. It got a great response from the audience too. Tsuki Inoue’s brilliantly inventive short, A Woman Who is Beating the Earth, which I remember being praised vociferously by Tom Mes on Midnight Eye not so long ago, was another revelation, and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing more from this exciting new director in the future. Maya Yonesho’s Wiener Wuast was another of Chris’ picks, an experimental mixture of stop-motion animation and real-life cityscapes – we’re screening a similar work of hers later today, Israel Mix. And then the surreal, hypnotic non-narrative work Hottentot Apron, probably one of the most challenging of the festival, but great to see such experimental films getting an airing outside Japan.
Little Birds
Anyway, I’m hoping we get a similar load of attendances for today, and I’m pretty sure we’ll even be seeing a whole lot more, now the conflicting schedules of Toronto After Dark downtown has come to an end, although I’m not sure whether we’re really appealing to the same audience. We’ve got six program slots today, so it’s going to be a long ‘un, but I’m really looking forward to seeing how some of my selection goes down, especially the Iraq documentary Little Birds, which has been far too seldom screened overseas in my opinion.
Some great press also appearing, so I’ll link up here from yesterday’s Toronto Star and today’s Globe and Mail. Another update tomorrow…
Posted at 15:14 on 22 August 2009
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