Torino GLBT Film Festival, April 17-25
Posted on Monday, 14 April 2008 at 9:08 pm
If you just so happen to be in the vicinity of Italy between April 17th-25th, there’s ample reason to drop everything and head off to the Torino GLBT Film Festival. Apart from the vastly underrated Ichikawa Jun’s “How to Become Myself” screening in the International Competition, there’s also a well-programmed Japanese queer cinema retrospective spanning films from the sixties to the present. Details on the retro from the festival’s press release follow.
J-ENDER: BIG BANG LOVE IN JAPAN
An exciting journey into the empire of senses and signs. In collaboration with NEO(N)EIGA, the Festival will present the first European retrospective of Japanese queer films from the 1960s to the present. The retrospective will cross borders of gender and genre as it explores the Land of the Rising Sun. >From the artistic freedom and experiments of the nuberu bagu (Japanese nouvelle vague) through the traditional theater and the political soft core of pinku eiga (transvestism and outrageous pop culture), to the cartoons, in Japanese named Anime, that open a window onto desires and passions that would be difficult to find elsewhere. The cinema offers unique perspectives for us as distant observers of a country and a culture whose complexity is revealed in the endless paradigms of self-portrayal.
The films of the retrospective:
46-okuen no koi (Big Bang Love, Juvenile A) - Miike Takashi (Japan 2006)
Ai no Kusabi /Ai no Kusabi - Kanketsuhen - Nishimori Akira, Akiyama Katsuhito (Japan 1992/1994)
Anata ga suki desu, dai suki desu (I Like you, I Like You Very Much) - Oki Hiroyuki (Japan 1994)
Aoki okamitachi no densetsu - Yasuhito Yamaki, Yasunori Urata (Japan 1996)
Bara no Soretsu (The Funeral Parade of Roses) - Matsumoto Toshio (Japan 1969)
Berusaiyu no bara (Lady Oscar) - Jacques Demy (Japan/France 1979)
Children of Summer Solstice - Oki Hiroyuki (Japan 1990)
The Form of the Palace of Matsumae-kun’s Brothers 1 + - Oki Hiroyuki (Japan 2006)
Gohatto - Oshima Nagisa (UK/Japan/France 1999)
Gonin - Ishii Takashi (Japan 1995)
Hatachi no binetsu (A Touch of Fever) - Hashiguchi Ryosuke (Japan 1993)
Kaze to ki no uta - Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (Japan 1987)
Kurutta Butokai (Muscle) - Sato Hisayasu (Japan 1988)
Kyokon densetsu: utsukushii nazo (Beautiful Mystery) - Nakamura Ganji (Japan 1983)
Manji (All Mixed Up) - Masumura Yasuzo (Japan 1964)
Rasen no Sobyo (Rough Sketch of a Spiral) - Kojima Yasushi (Japan 1991)
Tamaasobi (The Ball Game) - Oki Hiroyuki (Japan 1996)
Tarch Trip - Oki Hiroyuki (Japan 1992)
Yukinojo Henge (An Actor’s Revenge) - Ichikawa Kon (Japan 1963)Mr. Oki Hiroyuki will be present at the Torino GLBT Film Festival and will introduce his movies
comment by Michael Kerpan
posted on Monday, April 14 2008 at 9:08 pm
I am so glad to see Ichikawa’s absolutely wonderful film get some attention. I wonder how this got picked for a GLBT film festival, as there does not seem (to me) to be any overtly lesbian aspect to the film. But it is certainly (highly) relevant to the more general issue of finding out (and becoming) the person one really is.