Kurosawa Year 2010
Activity The Kurosawa Year, which goes around 12 Spanish cities, and where 26 institutions and entities collaborate with the organization of commemorative activities, is made up of film series, seminars and lectures, a drawing exhibition by Kurosawa, the launch of a book about the film maker and other activities such as courses, demonstrations and theatre performances. In total, more than a hundred events devoted to this Japanese film maker.
Organizer Centre d'Investigacions Film-Història de la Universitat de Barcelona, cultural affairs and Casa Asia, in collaboration with Fundación Japón, la Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia, la Filmoteca de Catalunya, la Filmoteca Española, ESCAC, la Filmoteca del Instituto Valenciano de Cinematografía, el Centro Social Universitario de la Universidad de Murcia, la Filmoteca Asturiana, la Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Alhóndiga Bilbao, el Centro Cultural Hispano-japonés de la Universidad de Salamanca, la Biblioteca Pública Casa de las Conchas de Salamanca, la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, CCCB, el Festival Internacional de Cine de Valladolid, el Festival Internacional de Cine de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, el Festival de Cines del Sur de Granada, el Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, la Universidad de Granada, el Festival de Cine Europeo de Sevilla, la Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid, el Ministerio de Educación, la Fundación Instituto de Japonología.
Starts on 03/03/2010
Ends on 30/12/2010
Venue Madrid, Barcelona, Valladolid, Las Palmas, Murcia, Oviedo, Valencia, Granada, Sitges, Sevilla, Bilbao and Salamanca.
Additional information The organization of the Kurosawa Year in Spain responds not only to the interest in speading the life and work of Kurosawa, but also to offer spaces of reflection and debate on the filmography of the director, also known as the "Emperor of Cinema", author of memorable films such as Drunken Angel, Seven Samurai or Ran.
The 26 institutions involved in the holding of the Kurosawa Year will offer a series of events that portray the Japanese film maker, from his hobbies and influences, to his greatest works. Moreover, the recently opened Japan Foundation-Madrid has organised in Barcelona and in Madrid a lecture series about Noh theatre, which influenced his way of seeing cinema. The Spanish public can approach this Japanese art of more than 600 years of history through the exhibition at Fundación Pons (from the 15th to the 24th of March) and of the representation of two plays in Barcelona and Madrid, given by one of the most important groups of Noh theatre of Japan, the Kongo school.
But as it couldn't be in any other way, the film series and retrospectives about the film maker will be the main stars of the Year. The International Film Festival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has planned the series Akira Kurosawa Centenary and the International Film Festival of Valladolid (SEMINCI 2010) present the tribute Looking over Akira Kurosawa 1910-2010. The Catalonian Film Library, the Spanish Film Library, the Film Library of Asturias and the Film Library of the Valencian Institute of Cinematography join the tribute with the series Centenary of Akira Kurosawa, the Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya programmes the Kurosawa Week at ESCAC and the Casa Asia Headquarters, the Casa Asia Centre-Madrid and the University Social Centre of the University of Murcia will offer part of the filmography of the director in Akira Kurosawa and a lecture series about the film maker. Finally, the CCCB will also offer a special programme on Kurosawa.
The launch of the book Akira Kurosawa. La mirada del samurái, by Andrés Expósito, Carlos Giménez Sorai and Jordi Pugdomènec, will take place at the Spanish Film Library and at the Alhóndiga of Bilbao, which will also host the exhibition La mirada del samurái. Akira Kurosawa's Drawings, within the framework of the 52nd edition of the International Festival of Short Films and Documentary Cinema of Bilbao (ZINEBI). The display will bring together for the first time in Spain 120 original drawings of the storyboards of Kagemusha, The Shadow Warrior, Ran, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, Rhapsody in August, Not Yet and The sea that surrounds us, together with the original clothes designed by Akira Kurosawa for the shooting of Ran, as well as the screening of the hall of fragments of his films and an important collection of his filmography. The curator is also the Director of the Kurosawa Year, Josep María Caparrós.
Finally, the courses on Japanese culture and oriental Asian art offered by the Casa Asia Centre-Madrid and the lecture series at the centre, the Centre d'Investigacions Film-Història (UB) and the Internacional University of Catalonia will complete the programme devoted to one of the great figures of Japanese cinema.