Part of Winter 2007
LIFT & Pleasure Dome with sponsorship from Available Light Screening Collective, CFMDC, Charles Street Video, Cinecycle, Ed Video, Images Festival, imagineNATIVE Festival, IMAA, The Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa, Inside Out, Media City, MOCCA, Moving Pictures Festival, Niagara Custom Lab, Reel Asian Festival, Saw Video, TAIS, Trinity Square Video and Vtape present a special benefit screening of astounding Japanese animated shorts to raise money for LIFT’s newly established award, The Roberto.
Created in honour of Roberto Ariganello, LIFT’s late Executive Director – and former Chair of Pleasure Dome’s Board – The Roberto is an annual cash award presented to an individual who demonstrates an outstanding commitment to the film community through devoted volunteerism, selfless mentorship, and/or the introduction of bold initiatives while maintaining his/her own art practice using celluloid in a stubbornly revolutionary and celebratory way (to be administered and juried through LIFT’s Board).
The Japanese Animation Trips programme was guest-curated by Ken Okubo for the special drugs and cinema-themed sidebar White Light at the 2006 International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it played to a sold-out house. The programme features: Nobuhiro Aihara’s surreal, abstract Trip (with Keiichi Tanaami) and Yellow Night; Kurosaka Keita’s Sea Roar (Umi no uta) set in a traditional fishing village where ancient ceremonies are held to burn old boats and pray for their spirits; Fujiwara Osato’s Souvenirs of Japan (Omiyage), the story of an old lady who owns a busy souvenir shop in a tourist area remembering her hardships before, during, and after the war; Finally, Hiratake Shinya’s unforgettable French (Furansu jin) uses 6,000 spectacular wood block prints to recount the adventures of a Japanese boy wandering around France, hallucinating due to the foreignness of the environment and its strange language.
Afterparty with Dj to follow until 1am.
