Yan This is a wish come true, says Yuki Sakamoto, cofounder of the Chicago Japan Film Collective (CJFC), the first-ever Japanese film festival held in Chicago. The festival runs from May 25 through May 30 on Eventive, a digital streaming platform. We are hoping to do a hybrid festival next year in theaters and also online, to make it bigger and bigger, says cofounder Hiroshi Kono. Kono founded New York Japan CineFest in 2012, a film festival with a focus on Japanese indie shorts, while Sakamoto works with the Chicago International Film Festival and produces films of her own. CJFC is a product of their creative collaboration and friendship.
Mar 4, 2021
The earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster of March 11, 2011, have generated dozens of films, fiction and nonfiction, from nearly every conceivable angle. The only other historical event in the modern era covered so thoroughly by Japanese filmmakers is World War II.
One difference is that, unlike the many war films that sentimentalize and idealize their heroes (those glorifying the
tokkо̄tai suicide pilots being prominent examples), films about March 11 have, by and large, tried to be honest, even when it means showing victims in a less-than-positive light.
Some of the filmmakers have spent years getting to know their subjects, enabling them to bring a welcome depth and insight to their stories. While this mostly applies to makers of documentaries, many directors of fiction films have also been forthright and unsparing, doing their own legwork rather than relying on a bestselling novel or other presold property for inspiration the