Zipangu Fest Reveals Full Programme: Nuclear Reactions, Retro, Animation and Horror
Japanese film festival to screen timely environmental films and a rarely seen 1930s ghost story
London – Monday October 17th 2011 Zipangu Fest is pleased to announce the full line up of its 2011 programme.
In the aftermath of this year's tragedy in north-eastern Japan, the issues surrounding nuclear energy have resurfaced and Zipangu Fest will show two documentaries on the subject. Hitomi Kamanaka's Ashes to Honey and Rokkasho Rhapsody will be screened as part of the festival's Nuclear Reactions programme, along with Hiroshima Nagasaki Download – a documentary road trip in which two college friends interview atomic bomb survivors living in North America.
On the same theme, Zipangu Fest is proud to present a rare screening of the 1959 docudrama Lucky Dragon No. 5. Directed by one of post-war Japan's most important independent film makers, Kaneto Shindō, the film tells the story of the Bikini Atoll hydrogen bomb catastrophe that exposed a Japanese fishing boat crew to radioactive fallout. While this incident gave rise to Japan's famous movie monster Godzilla, fewer people know about Shindō's treatment of it.
Another rare screening in the form of a 1930s ghost story, The Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen, will form part of the Zipangu Retro section. Subtitled especially for Zipangu Fest and never seen before in the UK, this 1938 gem is one of Japan's few surviving pre-war horror films.
J-Horror meets J-pop in Shirome, a mockumentary that involves director Kōji Shiraishi luring pre-pubescent idol band Momoiro Clover into a supposedly haunted abandoned school – the result lies somewhere between the Blair Witch Project and the X-Factor. Shirome is part of the previously announced Sounds of Zipangu section, which will open the festival with the stunning new film KanZeOn. A fictional companion piece to KanZeOn, Abraxas, tells the story of a punk musician turned Buddhist monk and it was a surprise hit at the 2011 Sundance Festival.
Zipangu Fest's Beyond Anime: The Outer Limits programme will present some of the most interesting Japanese indie animations from recent years, and in case you missed our previous announcement – experimental films by Takashi Makino and others will be showcased at the ICA and at a benefit night at Dalston's Café Oto.
Festival director and head programmer, Jasper Sharp, comments: “This year's festival presents a really interesting mix of old and new. I think it is a far more robust line-up than anything I've been involved in before, with all of the films linked by a tone or a theme that I think will really have audiences coming away thinking about Japanese cinema in a different way.”
The second Zipangu Fest – celebrating the best of cutting edge and avant garde Japanese cinema – will be held at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts and Café Oto from November 18th to 24th, before moving to venues around the UK. The festival will showcase a selection of Japan's finest features, documentaries, shorts, animation and experimental films.
For full details and descriptions go to: http://zipangufest.com.
For further press information please contact: Sarah Macdonald: [email protected] (0208 689 3824)
