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POKÉMON, SPEED RACER, ANIME, AND AMERICAN CULTURE DISCUSSION COMING UP AT THE CLARK | | Not to mention a free anime film series in November! | | | Posted 9/5/2008 | |  | |  |  POKÉMON, SPEED RACER, ANIME, AND AMERICAN CULTURE DISCUSSED OCTOBER 2 AT THE CLARK
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA- Japanese imports like Pokémon, Speed Racer, Transformers, and other anime and manga (Japanese animation and comic books), plus Japanese fashion and food, have become incredibly popular in the United States. On Thursday, October 2, at 7 pm, Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S., will discuss the influx of Japanese art and fashion and how they translate into a new vision of American culture. The lecture is free and held at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
Japanamerica is the first book that directly addresses the American experience with the Japanese pop phenomenon, covering everything from Hayao Miyazaki's epics, the burgeoning world of hentai, or violent pornographic anime, and Puffy Amiyumi, whose exploits are broadcast daily on the Cartoon Network, to literary novelist Haruki Murakami, and more. With insights from the artists, critics, readers, and fans from both nations, this book is as literate as it is hip, highlighting the shared conflicts as American and Japanese pop cultures dramatically collide in the here and now.
During the lecture, Kelts will expose what he describes in his book as the “Mobius strip” of intercultural exchange between Japan and the United States, beginning with the postwar American occupation of Japan, both militarily and culturally. Kelts will explore the explosion of interest in hot conceptual artists like Takashi Murakami, as well as the rise of the broader Asian region in the 21st-century American psyche and how the new Asian identity contains more American DNA than most realize.
Kelts is a half-Japanese American writer, editor, and lecturer who divides his time between New York and Tokyo. His book Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. was recently released in updated paperback editions in English and Japanese. He is also a contributing editor/writer to A Public Space and Adbusters magazines, and a guest lecturer at the University of Tokyo and Sophia University. He is currently co-director of a new anime lecture and screening series, Anime Masterpieces, launching in the U.S. this fall and winter. Kelts’s articles, essays, and short stories have appeared in Zoetrope, Playboy, Doubletake, Psychology Today, Bookforum, Salon, The Village Voice, Newsday, Cosmopolitan, Vogue and The Japan Times, among others in both the U.S. and Japan. He has lectured at New York University, Rutgers University, and Barnard College, and he is a graduate of Oberlin College and Columbia University. His forthcoming novel is called Access.
The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm (daily in July and August). Admission June 1 through October 31 is $12.50 for adults, free for children 18 and younger, members, and students with valid ID. Admission is free November through May. For more information, call 413-458-2303 or visit www.clarkart.edu. | |
FREE ANIME FILM SERIES AT THE CLARK IN NOVEMBER
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA- Anime, as Japanese animation is usually called, is an immense presence in the culture of Japan, with global reach as well. During the series, “Anime for Grown-ups: The Art of Japanese Animation,” the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute will look at anime not from the perspective of genre expectations, but through the work of directors who speak in the international language of film. Films are free and held on Saturdays in November at 1 pm (Japanese with English subtitles) and 3 pm (dubbed American version).
Porco Rosso (1992, 94 min., rated PG)
November 1
A decade before he became a household name in America with an Oscar for Spirited Away, along with other children’s favorites, Hayao Miyazaki directed Porco Rosso explicitly for adults. Rather like Casablanca meets Only Angels Have Wings, it tells of a World War I flying ace, reduced to bounty hunting against air pirates over the Adriatic while the Fascists come to power in 1920s Italy—and oh, incidentally, he’s turned into the Crimson Pig of the title.
Whisper of the Heart (1995, 111 min., rated PG)
November 8
Unlike Disney, Studio Ghibli is collaborative rather than corporate. For Whisper of the Heart, a thoroughly charming tale of adolescent romance and a bright young girl’s search for self, Miyazaki wrote the script but gave the direction to heir apparent Yoshifumi Kondo. Set in a realistic present, it is a testament to the expressive powers of rather simple animation, with brief fantasy interludes. If you liked Juno, you will love this winning story of a brash schoolgirl finding both a boyfriend and a calling in life.
Grave of the Fireflies (1988, 88 min., PG-13)
November 15
Directed by Isao Takahata, Miyazaki’s longtime collaborator, Grave of the Fireflies is a sensitive, harrowing film that depicts the impact of war on children, warranting comparison to all-time classic Forbidden Games. Two orphans, a boy and his younger sister, struggle for survival in the aftermath of the World War II firebombing of Japan, finding evanescent beauty in a terminal landscape. This sad and powerful masterpiece evokes the horror of war and the hope of humanity as well as any live-action film.
Tokyo Godfathers (2004, 92 min., rated PG-13)
November 22
Satoshi Kon has established himself as a young director to watch, among those for whom animation is simply the most expressive medium for serious films of all sorts. In Tokyo Godfathers he transposes John Ford’s Western Three Godfathers to the underbelly of modern-day Tokyo, with three tramps—an alcoholic, a transvestite, and a teen runaway—finding a baby on Christmas Eve, and encountering comic adventures in their heartwarming attempt to return the child to its mother.
Paprika (2006, 90 min., rated R)
November 29
With Paprika Satoshi Kon delves into the sci-fi realm so common in anime, but with a distinctive bent, adapting a (non-graphic) novel obsessed with psychoanalysis and the meaning of dreams. Paprika is the therapeutic avatar of a powerful woman psychiatrist, partnered with a blubbery nerd genius who has invented a machine that allows physical entry into the dreams of subjects, a dangerous weapon in the hands of the unscrupulous and power-mad. This may be the boldest popular exploration of dream imagery since Hitchcock’s Spellbound.
The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm (daily in July and August). Admission is free November 1 through May 31. Admission June 1 through October 31 is $12.50 for adults, free for children 18 and younger, members, and students with valid ID. For more information, call 413-458-2303 or visit www.clarkart.edu. | | | | | | |
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