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MIT/Harvard Cool Japan project brings award-winning anime film Tekkon Kinkreet (2006) for premiere/panel discussion: Oct 1

Cambridge, MA... On Oct. 1, 2008, the MIT/Harvard Cool Japan research project hosts the Boston-area premiere of an award-winning animated feature film from Japan, Tekkon Kinkreet (2006, Dir. Arias, Rated R). The screening will be preceded by a panel discussion with leading anime and film scholars from Harvard, Tufts, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as with the screenwriter of the film.

Free and open to the public, the event will be held from 6-9:30pm, Oct. 1 (Wed.) at the Tsai Auditorium at Harvard University, which is located at the CGIS South Bldg., 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02138. Seating limited (max. 150).

Tekkon Kinkreet, which won the Japan Academy Prize for Best Animated Feature Film in 2008, is remarkable for its breathtaking visuals and fast-paced storytelling. Also intriguing as an example of the international collaborations that increasingly characterize Japanese animation production, the film is the first feature-length anime to be directed by an American, namely, Michael Arias, who lives and works in Tokyo. The screenwriter, who will participate in the event, is an American as well. They worked with a Japanese animation studio to adapt a Japanese comic book for the big screen. The R-rated film (for violence) will be screened in Japanese with English subtitles. Film preview.

Produced by Tokyo-based cutting-edge Studio 4°C, whose work appeared on the Animatrix shorts, the film offers a stunning portrait of youth violence and urban disarray in the context of corrupt developers, self-serving gangsters, and ineffectual police. The film is based on the 1996 manga (Japanese comic book) by Taiyo Matsumoto. It depicts the fantastical adventures of two orphans whose unusual abilities are mysteriously linked to a city undergoing rapid change. The panel discussion prior to the screening will address the ways this virtual world speaks to very real politics. The academic panelists and the screenwriter of Tekkon, Anthony Weintraub, will also participate in a discussion and Q/A following the screening.    

Event details:

6-7pm   Panel: "Virtual Worlds, Real Politics: Youth, Violence and Capitalism"

Ian Condry (MIT), author of Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization

Susan Napier (Tufts), author of Anime: From "Akira" to "Howl's Moving Castle"

Markus Nornes (Harvard / U Michigan), author of Japanese Documentary Film

Anthony Weintraub, screenwriter, Tekkon Kinkreet

7-8:45pm   Film screening Tekkon Kinkreet (in Japanese with English subtitles, Rated R)

8:45-9:30pm   Q/A and discussion with the panelists

High resolution images for publication and promotion are available here
Credit line should read: © Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

What is the Cool Japan Project?

Since January 2006, Prof. Ian Condry has organized the research project Cool Japan: Media, Culture, Technology at MIT and Harvard. The project presents colloquia, international conferences, and arts events to examine the cultural connections, dangerous distortions, and critical potential of popular culture. The goal is to encourage scholarly debate, research, and networking in the Boston area for faculty and students interested in media and globalization related to Japan. The project is sponsored by the MIT Japan Program, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University, and MIT Foreign Languages and Literatures.