The cherry
blossoms are in full bloom in Tokyo, which means the latest edition of the
Image Forum Festival is fast approaching.
It begins April 29th at its home at the Image Forum Theatre
in Shibuya and runs until May 6th.
The festival will then tour the country until mid-July so check out their website for
locations near you if you live in Japan.
As usual,
the programme features a diverse range of the weird and the wonderful from far
and wide. Some of the highlights of this
year include The Guillaume
Nicloux’s comedy-drama The Kidnapping
of Michel Houellebecq (L'enlèvement
de Michel Houellebecq / ミシェル・ウエルベック誘拐事件, 2014), starring the
notorious author himself, and Andreas
Horvath’s acclaimed documentary Helmut
Berger, Actor (俳優、ヘルムート・バーガー, 2015) about the Austrian actor who worked so
closely with his partner Luchino Visconti
in the 60s and 70s.
In terms of
animation, there is a wide selection of Japanese artists’ works from the 1990s,
2000s and 2010s on offer. There are also
programmes highlighting the animation of other Southeast Asian countries under
the umbrella “Anime-Asean” including selections of animated shorts from Singapore
and Indonesia. In my opinion, the “must-see” programme
is “Japan Tomorrow” (ジャパン・トゥモロウ) which showcases these recent avant-garde animation
and experimental works by Japanese directors:
To Heel (愛のかかと / Ai no
kakato, 2016)
affordance
and, end (えんえん / En En, 2015)
Don’t Tell Mom (おかあさんにないしょ, 2015)
Sawako
KABUKI / 冠木佐和子
Clickety-Clack
Film “High-speed Express”
(快速急行ガタゴトフィルム / Kaisoku Kyūkō Gatagoto Firumu, 2015)
Datum Point
(水準原点 / Suijun Genten,
2015)
Schizophrenia
(スキゾフレニア, Sukizofuzenia, 201)
Chocolate Cake and Hōryū-ji
(チョコレートケーキと法隆寺 / Chokorēto keki to Hōryū-ji, 2016)
Keita MUKAI
/ 向井啓太
Nothing You Need to See
(何も見なくていい / Nani mo Minakute ii, 2015)
Haha yo, Anime wo miyou (母よ、アニメを見よう, 2015)
Pyramid (PYRAMID－破壊の記憶の走馬灯 / Hakai no Kioku no Sōmatō, 2015)
Marginal Man
(マージナルマンのトーソー / Mājinaruman no tōsō, 2016)
Mayumi (まゆみ , 2015)
Watashi niwa
Mirai ga aru (私には未来がある, 2016)
