Home > About the Museum > News Room > Soaring Voices Film Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Crocker Art Museum Presents
Soaring Voices Film Festival on October 17

Film festival explores the role of women in Japanese culture

August 20, 2009 – Sacramento, Calif. – This fall, the Crocker Art Museum will host a daylong festival of contemporary films by female directors exploring the roles of Japanese and Japanese American women. Held to coincide with the Crocker’s exhibit of contemporary ceramics by Japanese women, Soaring Voices, the festival will include four film screenings at the Guild Theater, located at 2828 35th Street, on Saturday, October 17. Local filmmakers, artists and scholars will introduce and offer insight on each film.

 “Soaring Voices tells the story of Japanese women breaking into the male-only ceramic world, and these films expand on that story by looking at the position of women in Japanese society as a whole,” commented Christian Adame, manager of life-long learning at the Crocker Art Museum.

The festival will kick-off with a screening of From a Silk Cocoon (2004, 57 minutes) at 9:30 a.m. Woven through censored letters, diary entries and haiku poetry, this documentary recounts the story of a Japanese American couple whose shattered dreams and forsaken loyalties led them to renounce their American citizenship while held in American internment camps during World War II. Local director Satsuki Ina will introduce the film.

Wool 100% (2006, 100 Minutes) will start at 11 a.m. Combining live action, puppetry and animation, this drama is about two aging women who live a solitary life collecting discarded items from a nearby town. One day they return home to find a young girl knitting a red sweater in their house. Each time the girl finishes her sweater, she mysteriously unravels it and starts again. Classical pianist Natsuki Fukasawa will introduce this film, directed by Mai Tominaga.

In Shinjuku Boys (1995, 53 minutes), showing at 1 p.m., directors Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams explore the complexity of female sexuality in Japan today. This film introduces three “onnabes,” women who live as men but do not usually identify as lesbians. All three, who work as hosts at the New Marilyn Club in Tokyo, talk frankly to the camera about women, sex, transvestitism and lesbianism. Cindi Sturtz Sreetharan, Ph.D., assistant director of the Asian Studies Program at Sacramento State will introduce the film.

Starting at 2:25 p.m., Sacramento Area Youth Speaks will perform original works and recitations based on the Soaring Voices exhibit.

The final film, K-20: Legend of the Mask (2008, 137 minutes), will be screened at 2:45 p.m. Director Shimako Sato combines a top cast with stunning visual effects to depict a story of a Ninja-like thief who lives in a very different version of 1949 Feudal Japan, where World War II never happened. This film will make its Sacramento premiere at the festival. Jenny Stark, associate professor of film and video at Sacramento State, will introduce the film.

Guests can mingle with speakers during the festival’s after party starting at 5:30 p.m. at nearby 40 Acres Art Gallery.

All day passes to the festival are $10 for Crocker Art Museum members, $15 for nonmembers and $12 for students and seniors. Light fare and refreshments will be available for purchase. Festival goers are invited to attend a pre-festival tour of Soaring Voices on Friday, October 16 at 4 p.m. This Festival is supported by VIZ Pictures, Inc., Cinema Epoch and Women Make Movies.

Reservations are required by October 14. To register for one or more films, call (916) 808-5499 or email education@crockerartmuseum.org. Passes will be available for purchase at the door.

The Crocker Art Museum was founded in 1885 and continues as the leading art institution for the California Capital Region and Central Valley. The Museum offers a diverse spectrum of special exhibitions, events and programs to augment its collections of California, European and Asian artworks. The Crocker is located at 216 O Street in Downtown Sacramento. Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Sunday; 1st and 3rd Thursdays until 9 p.m. Free admission on Sundays from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. is made possible through the support of Bank of America. For more information on exhibits and events call (916) 808-7000 or visit crockerartmuseum.org.

# # #

Media Contact: Kathleen C. Richards
Media: (916) 808-5157
Public: (916) 808-7000

216 O Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
www.crockerartmuseum.org

 

2009 Press Releases

11.02.09
Crocker Art Museum Expansion to Open on October 10, 2010

10.27.09
Target Hosts Free Day at the Crocker on November 14

10.20.09
Collection of California Abstract Expressionist Works Given to the Crocker Art Museum by George Y. and LaVona J. Blair

10.09.09
Mad Men-Style Glamour Reigns at the 49th Annual Crocker Ball on December 5

10.08.09
Crocker Holiday Art & Craft Festival November 27-29 at Scottish Rite Center

09.24.09
Crocker Art Museum's First Director Receives First Solo Museum Exhibit

09.22.09
Unique Crocker Family Stories Come to Light in Exhibition

09.14.09
The Crocker Art Museum and Citizen Hotel Form Exclusive Partnership

09.09.09
Crocker Receives Grants From Two National Organizations

09.02.09
38th Annual Art and Antiques Show and Sale October 23-25

08.24.09
Spotlight on Harpsichord and Saxophone During the Crocker's Classical Concert on October 25

08.21.09
Festival of Forms Marks Closing of Soaring Voices Exhibit

08.20.09
Crocker Art Museum's Presents Soaring Voices Film Festival on October 17

08.05.09
Crocker's Third Thursday Jazz Summer Concert Series Features Roger Smith on September 17

07.09.09
September Classical Concerts features Viennese Operettas with Hannes Busch

06.26.09
Major Contemporary Ceramics Collection Gifted to Crocker

06.04.09
Crocker’s Classical Concert Features All Romantic Program August 23

06.03.09
Crocker's Third Thursday Jazz Summer Concert Series Features Peter Morgan August 20

05.28.09
Crocker’s Classical Concert Features Bach’s Unaccompanied Suites for Cello July 26

05.26.09
Crocker's Third Thursday Jazz Summer Concert Series Features The Garrett Perkins Project July 16

05.21.09
Crocker Participates in Bank of America's Museums on Us Program

05.11.09
Smashing the Clay Ceiling:
The Quiet Revolution of Japanese Women Ceramists Explored in New Crocker Exhibit

04.23.09
Crocker’s Third Thursday Jazz Summer Concert Series Features Iván Nájera June 18

04.22.09
Summer Art Classes Announced

04.20.09
Call for Regional Artists

04.16.09
Financial & Estate Planning
Seminar for Art Collectors

04.01.09
Second Seminar Offered of Financial & Legal Planning for Same-Sex Couples

03.23.09
Senior Art Social Hearkens to Bygone Era

03.19.09
Regional Artists Featured in Two Art Auction Events

03.18.09
Crocker’s Third Thursday Jazz
Summer Concert Series Features
The Perry Mills Project May 21

03.16.09
Mass Meditation on Peace
Marks Closing of Buddha Exhibit

02.23.09
Parrish Prints Debut at the Crocker

02.20.09
Crocker Launches Arts Stimulus Package

02.05.09
Now Playing at the Crocker Art Museum

01.15.09
First Museum Exhibition for Animal Portraitist Mari Kloeppel

01.12.09
California Artists Showcased in Crocker-Kingsley Exhibit

Press Release Archive
2008
2007
2006

2005
2004
2003

 

Home | Directions | Join | eNews | Terms of Use | Site Map | Webmaster

© 2009 Crocker Art Museum. All Rights Reserved. No images or information on this site may be reproduced, transmitted or copied without permission.
This website is partially underwritten by the Art Service Group of the Crocker Art Museum and the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.

Crocker Art Museum   |   216 O Street, Sacramento, CA 95814   |   916.808.7000