This October, the Camera Japan Festival returns, starting as always in Rotterdam with its full selection, before travelling to several other locations.
While the festival is primarily focused on Japanese films (more than 40 are in the program), there are always live performances, lectures, expositions and workshops about Japanese culture as well. Thankfully this always includes great food too!
This year, the festival's theme is "J-Dream", meaning whatever is weird, fantastical or wonderful. The lecture topics include Japanese manga-architecture, and the fantastical elements in Japanese literature.
For a taste of "J-Dream", just check out this year's poster...
The films are mostly shown for the first time in the Netherlands, but there are some international premieres (first showings outside of Japan) as well. Several ScreenAnarchy-favorites show up in the program:
Why Don't You Play in Hell (Sono Sion)
The Apology King (Mizuta Nobuo)
And the Mud Shop Sails Away (Watanabe Hirobumi)
Greatful Dead (Uchida Eiji)
Live (Iguchi Noburu)
Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats (Fujita Yosuke)
The Snow White Murder Case (Nakamura Yoshihiro)
Unforgiven (Lee Sang-il)
The Tale of Iya (Tsuta Tetsuichiro)
Pecoross' Mother and Her Days (Morisaki Azuma)
Uzumasa Limelight (Ochiai Ken)
Tale of a Butcher Shop (Hanabusa Aya)
Forma (Sakamoto Ayumi)
Dancing Karate Kid (Kishimoto Tsukasa)
Jossy's (Fukuda Yuichi)
Short Peace (Otomo Katsuhiro, Ando Hiroaki, Katoki Hajime, Morita Shuhei)
And that's only part of the program!
Camera Japan starts on Thursday the second of October, and the Rotterdam part will continue until Sunday the 5th, after which the festival moves to Amsterdam.