2009 Kanazawa Film Festival

Following the precedent set by 2007's Seishun Grindhouse and 2008's Filmageddon, Kanazawa's film festival series continues with 2009's New World Order Survival Handbook. Showings coincide with the five day holiday and run from September 19th to the 25th.

This year's films are broken into four categories and each day is punctuated with special events and guest speakers.


WORLD OF THE FUTURE

How does our present stack up against the filmmakers who captured it as their future? Revisit the past future with 2001: A Space Odyssey and AKIRA, then brace yourself for a triple threat from the master of industrial imagery, Sogo Ishii, in the form of Asia Strikes Back, and The Master of Shiatsu, and his German rockumentary 1/2 Mensh.

CHARISMA

The mad dreams of men born from insatiable egos and accumulated power made real.
See Fitzcarraldo, the rubber baron who moved a ship over a mountain. Journey deeper into the heart of darkness with the extended Apocalypse Now: Redux. Go back in time with 2004’s historic dramatization of the great king of Macedonia, Alexander.

RELIGION

No new world order is complete without a religion to pacify it. See how belief can both unite and unmake societies in Shaka, the 1961 epic depicting the struggle between Siddhartha and the holy Brahmins of India circa 500 B.C., Essene, a documentary following the lives of monks cloistered in a Benedictine monastery,
The Terrifying Revelations of Nostradamus(ノストラダムス戦慄の啓示), a disaster film spanning nine dimensions of destruction, and The Human Revolution (人間革命), which follows the formation of Japan’s most infamous and influential new religion, Soka Gakkai.

NEW WORLD ORDER

Find out who is responsible for this charade we call civilization in the 2005 remake of War of the Worlds, conspiracy theory fueled Zeitgeist and its sequel, and The Gate of Heavenly Peace, an expose covering the Tienanmen Incident with interviews by participants and eyewitnesses.

In Terrifying Girls’ High School Classroom (恐怖女子高校　暴力教室), director Norifumi Suzuki brings us back to reality with a tale of high school girl gang bangers who unite to revolt against their corrupt, perverted headmaster. Memoir of Japanese Assassins(日本暗殺秘録) stars Sonny Chiba and is a cinematic retelling of assassinations that have shaped Japanese history. Lazarus (ラザロ) follows the psychopathic heroine Mayumi as she takes in girls who have fallen to the bottom of the widening crack between the haves and have-nots and trains them to eat the rich and kill for money. Finally, the American documentary FRAG blows the lid off the insanity that is professional gaming.

EVENTS

Talk Show
Rapper Utamaro from Ryhmester and self proclaimed Satanist/trash horror editor Yoshiki Takahashi (personal site, NSFW) team up to discuss the current sad state of affairs as it applies to society and film. While Utamaro might seem like an unlikely candidate, his Cinema Hustler film critic podcast is the real deal!

Metropolis Orchestra
Revisit the Fritz Lang classic accompanied by a live musical performance including accordion, piano, contra bass, and handmade instruments.

Mystery Outdoor Showing
What are they showing? It’s a mystery! First come first seated, so be sure to snag your spot early.

For more information check out the official homepage. The website is currently only in Japanese, but information in English should surface in time.