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Grave of the Fireflies Free Online Talk on Wednesday
posted on by Andrew Osmond
On Wednesday May 25, The Japan Foundation will present a free online by Alex Dudok de Wit, who is the author of the new BFI Film Classics book on Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies. He will be in conversation with Doctor Shiro Yoshioka. The event begins at 6.30 p.m.
The event can be registered here. Dudok de Wit was previously interviewed by ANN about his book here.
From the event description:
(Grave of the Fireflies) follows two Japanese children orphaned by a catastrophic air raid in Kobe, portraying their struggle to survive the last days of the Second World War with an unflinching realism rarely seen in animation. But why has this film been left out of the frenzied consumption of Studio Ghibli's works?
In conjunction with the release of the first book-length study of the film in English, Grave of the Fireflies (BFI Film Classics) in May, we invite the author, Alex Dudok de Wit, a journalist with expertise on Japanese anime, to explore his findings and the significance of this title. With critical analysis contextualised by the film's production background, he will focus on Isao Takahata's contribution to the animation genre, moving away from the more common spotlight on Hayao Miyazaki's work. His presentation, which will include live reading of short passages from the book, will be followed by a conversation with Dr YOSHIOKA Shiro, lecturer in Japanese Studies at Newcastle University, who specialises in Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's animation.
