"Easy Japanese" Video Series on the News

I am extremely honoured that scenes from our latest "Easy Japanese" video series were featured on this evening’s national news at 7PM on NHK 1.

Tonight’s news report coincided with this afternoon’s release of the 10-part educational series I directed about “Easy Japanese in Medical Settings” for the research team of 順天堂/Juntendo Univ's Dr. Yuko Takeda, Sacred Heart University’s Dr. Kazunari Iwata, Teikyo University Graduate School of Public Health's Dr. Hirono Ishikawa and NPO CINGA’s Midori Nii.

I am so grateful to our extremely talented production team:

Daniel Ndevu, production coordinator
Hitomi Nakatani, illustrator
Jeremy Yamamura, animator
Komiya Tetsuro, composer/ sound mixer
株式会社 栃木プロジェクトプロ narration/ animation
The Third Eye Corp’s Tanaka Sakae, production management
and Hemant Singh, director of photography/ editor who accomplished the neck-breaking and eyeball bursting task of editing nearly 75 minutes of blue screen compositing in lightning speed. He is a magician, miracle-worker and gentleman.

More about the video series in the official press release: https://www.juntendo.ac.jp/news/20200925-01.html

 

"Boys for Sale" screens at OAG House in Tokyo

I am extremely grateful to have been able to attend this evening’s screening of Boys For Sale, the first public in-person screening of a film I produced since the pandemic began. With social distancing in place, the screening was fully booked. The event was part of the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) interdisciplinary lecture series “Gender and Sexuality in East Asia: Cultural Studies and Social Science Perspectives”.

Prior to the screening, the composers of the film’s soundtrack Syamisenist Jack and Komiya Tetsuro played music from the film live. And Ko, one of the film’s protagonists, joined me for a post-screening discussion. My gratitude to all who attended and to the organizers for making the event possible.

Event info: https://oag.jp/events/boys-for-sale-von-ian-thomas-ash/

 

"Sending Off" to screen in NYC's Japan Cuts

"Sending off" is streaming from TODAY (July 17) until July 30 in the US! 

I am extremely honoured "Sending Off" has been selected to screen in the 2020 JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film! Due to COVID-19, the festival will be online, but this means the entire program of films will be available to stream for anyone in the US!

From the catalogue: "Capturing the process of dying as unobtrusively as possible and with absolute sensitivity..." 

FILM: https://japancuts.japansociety.org/film/sending-off/
TICKETS: https://japancuts.japansociety.org/page/tickets/
 

And I have the additional honour of taking part in the panel "New Approaches to Documentary from Japan".

PANEL (free): https://japancuts.japansociety.org/page/talks-events/

UPDATE July 27: Grateful for this Windows on Worlds review of "Sending Off":

https://windowsonworlds.com/2020/07/23/sending-off-%E3%81%8A%E3%81%BF%E3%81%8A%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8A%E3%80%9Csending-off%E3%80%9C-ian-thomas-ash-2019/

"Sending Off" to be broadcast on PBS Guam

金曜日グアムにてテレビ放送!!! I am extremely honoured my 2019 film Sending Off will be broadcast on Friday (June 5) at 8PM on PBS Guam (Channel 12) as part of the Guam International Film Festival "Select Showcase". Who could have imagined when this was scheduled months ago that broadcasting more than 40 films from 15 countries in 18 episodes would be so important for audiences as they Stay at Home.
 

INFO: https://www.guamfilmfestival.org/

 

 

"Easy Japanese" for Hard Times

【医療で用いる「やさしい日本語」】新型コロナウイルス検査編

Extremely proud to be a part of the creative team behind this video targeting heath care professionals testing non-native Japanese speakers for COVID-19.

 

It was awesome to work again with some of the artists behind the documentary Boys for Sale (2017) including N tani studio N谷工房 (illustrations), Jeremy Yamamura (animation) and Komiya Tetsuro (music/ sound effects). And thanks to my longtime friends at 株式会社 栃木プロジェクトプロ for the narration! 

 

While I usually edit from home, this was my first time to direct/ produce over the phone/ Zoom/ Skype.

 

The video was published today:

 

 

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/nwne978lJBc

PRESS RELEASE: https://www.juntendo.ac.jp/co-core/2020/04/58389fa597893e114d4489b46c23cdb7f1d55165.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3W15ZEM9sn040mux1wG7OrPk9PGjQsyFa_4t8rF6yLWGPx-LTPbDPMLyk

Presenting at UC Berkeley

Extremely honoured to present some of my Fukushima-based film work and speak yesterday at the symposium "Imagining Post 3.11 Futures and Living with Anthropogenic Change" at UC Berkeley. My gratitude to sponsors UC Berkeley Center for Japanese Studies, Japan society for the promotion of science, and the UC Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies. My gratitude also to Professor Hideaki Fujiki (pictured below) for leading the post-screening discussion and to conference organizer Professor Daniel O’Neill for the invitation to participate. 

INFO: https://ieas.berkeley.edu/imagining-futures-post-311-japan 

 

And it was an additional honour to present an 80 minute lecture about my work for the 75 students of Documentary Voices (history, theory, changes in the genre) which is a mandatory class for all film and media majors.

 

「売買ボーイズ」"Boys for Sale" screens at Columbia University

「売買ボーイズ」コランビア大学上映！Honoured to screen "Boys For Sale" in the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University today! 🎥❤️ INFO

ただいま！🇯🇵❤️ After 10 days away, I’m home!✈️🙏

 (This blog is based on social media posts from Nov 13-15, 2019.)

Candadian Premier of "Sending Off"

One of the best parts of attending a film festival is getting to see so many great films! 🎥❤️Saw 5 today and going to 6 tomorrow (no time for jet lag😊)! Canadian Premier of 「おみおくり〜Sending Off〜」in Windsor International Film Festival on Thurs (Nov 7). 🇨🇦 TICKETS

So grateful to Windsor International Film Festival's Executive Director & Chief Programmer Vincent Georgie for his shout out about my film before introducing the superstar director Werner Herzog’s latest documentary “Nomad” to a theatre full of people! 🙏🎥❤️

パパが映画祭に到着しました！LOOK who has joined me! I started today watching the shocking and wonderful “There are No Fakes” and then my dad joined me and hit the ground running watching THREE docs with me today: the eye-opening “Ghost Fleet”, the inspiring “Gay Chorus Deep South”, and the absolutely breath-taking, inspiring and phenomenal “Prey” about the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal.

Huge honour to hold Canadian Premier of 「おみおくり〜Sending Off〜」 at Windsor International Film Festival yesterday! Especially grateful to Executive Director/ Chief Programmer Vincent Georgie who introduced the film and to board member/ programmer Kim Nelson for conducting the Q&A! 🎶🎥 There are so many amazing films here (I watched 3 more yesterday- “Killing Patient Zero” an important story about the AIDS crises, Ken Loach’s suffocatingly realistic “Sorry I Missed You” and the screening of “Untouchable” that was attended by two Harvey Weinstein survivors. Off to the cinema to watch SIX more films today... 💕🎥🎶

Watched another 8 great films (including fascinating “Cold Case Hammarskjold”, crushing “By the Grace of God”, beautiful “Toni Morrison: the Pieces I Am”, and devastating “For Sama”), a few drinks and a delicious Ethiopian dinner later...🎥🍻💕

A wonderful last day with my dad at the festival with three more docs (“Olympia”, “Refugee” & “The Biggest Little Farm”). Thank you, Windsor International Film Festival for the awesome experience! We look forward to seeing you again at a future edition. Congratulations on 15 years and here’s to many, many more!! 🎥💕🥂

飛行場でパパと別れのコーヒーを飲んで、一人でニューヨークへ！✈️❄️✈️❄️✈️❄️

Said goodbye to my dad over a coffee at the airport in Detroit, and now I am taking off for NYC (he is on his way home to DC)! Honoured to screen「売買ボーイズ」Boys For Sale at Columbia University in the City of New York tomorrow (Nov 12)! Thank you all for your support! 🎥❤️ INFO

 (This blog is based on a series of social media posts from Nov 5-12, 2019.)

"Sending Off" holds Guam Premier

「おみおくり～Sending Off～」のグアム島初上映!! 

After landing on Guam, I went straight from the airport directly to Hit Radio 100 Guam's Rocking Rich’s show for a live interview about the Guam premier of 「おみおくり～Sending Off～」(INFO)!

Guam International Film Festival hospitality team’s Jonah

Thanks to Guam International Film Festival's Kel & Don Muna and the entire festival team, the screening of「おみおくり〜Sending Off〜」 at the gorgeous Guam Museum was attended by a really responsive audience and was followed by a Q&A filled with great questions. Such an honour to screen with Guam International Film Festival again- the first time was in 2013 (story HERE and HERE).

Guam International Film Festival's Kel & Don Muna

The day after the screening, I had a wonderful recorded conversation with filmmaker Kel Muna for an upcoming project followed by the honour of serving on the Guam International Film Festival panel “The Impact of Culture + Film” alongside film professor Dr. Ray Anderson, Cultural Artist and educator Eva Aguon Cruz and filmmakers Denton Pangelinan, Keanno Fausto & Patrick Hogan which was recorded at Guam Museum in front of a live audience for broadcast by PBS Guam! INFO 

「おみおくり〜Sending Off〜」 will next be screening in Canada in the Windsor International Film Festival on Thu, Nov 7 at 3:30PM! Hope to see you there! TICKETS

(This blog is based on a series of social media posts from Oct 11-14, 2019.)