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Summer Anime Series 2009
Presented by the Japan Information & Culture Center, Embassy of Japan
and DC Anime Club
Winner of the Mainichi Award for Best Animated Film 2008
SKY CRAWLERS
June 26th @ 6:30pm
In a hauntingly familiar yet futuristic alternate reality, eternally youthful fighter pilots struggle for supremacy of the skies. Genetically modified to exist in perpetual adolescence, these immortal "kildren" are forced to carry out a war between competing international corporations in an otherwise peaceful world—all for the entertainment of the consumer. But when an ace pilot falls for his beautiful new commander, he begins to question his fate. From award-winning anime director Mamoru Oshii comes this stunning adaptation of the original series of graphic novels by Hiroshi Mori. The highly anticipated DVD was released in the US on May 26th.
Mamoru Oshii is revered by both film enthusiasts and anime aficionados as a true innovator in animation. His introspective, philosophical style of storytelling challenges the stereotypes of conventional animation. With a unique atmospheric touch and surreal narrative approach, his film Innocence (2004) became the first animated film to be chosen as a finalist for the prestigious Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Japanese with English subtitles.120 min, 2008. Rated PG-13. Directed by Mamoru Oshii.
This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and will be granted on a first come, first served basis. Reservations required. Please send your name, affiliation, the number in your party and the names of your guests to jiccrsvpsummer09@embjapan.org.
Summer Anime Series 2009
July 31 Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro
The escapades of master thief Lupin III continue in this action-packed anime feature. Lupin and the gang set out to expose an evil counterfeit operation at Count Cagliostro's impenetrable fortress. But if they fail to rescue the beautiful princess from the dark lord's grip, they risk destroying the world -- and losing the vast fortune of gold hidden within. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Steven Spielberg calls it "One of the greatest adventure movies of all time." Don't miss it!
Aug. 28 Death Note II: The Last Name
Following on the heels of the first Death Note movie, Light Yagami joins the investigation of the serial killer known as "Kira," trying to uncover L's real name so he can kill him with his Death Note. L suspects that Light is Kira, but a new rash of murders are taking place around the world, with a "Second Kira" claiming responsibility. When Light learns the identity of the Second Kira, he suggests they join forces to get rid of L. Will L be able to catch Kira before he is killed?
Japan Information & Culture Center, Embassy of Japan
Lafayette Centre III (lower level) 1155 21st Street NW, Washington D.C. 20036
Metro: Dupont Circle, Farragut North (Red) / Farragut West (Orange / Blue)
www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/jicc
Weldon, Glen. 2009.
8 Practical Uses For The Giant Graphic Novel 'George Sprott, 1894-1975'.
National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (June 24):
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/06/8_practical_uses_for_the_giant.html?sc=nl&cc=msb-20090624
Arlington Central Library Auditorium, 1015 N. Quincy Street, Arlington, Va.
Hear from the man behind the syndicated daily comic strip "Cul de Sac," and who's unique style and humor have graced the various parts of the Washington Post ("Richard's Poor Almanac"), National Geographic, the Atlantic and the New Yorker--Arlington's own Richard Thompson. No, not the musician by the same name. The cartoonist Richard Thompson. Book-signing follows.
DCist Interview: Major Lazer [music-related cartoon character].
By Andrew Wiseman in Arts and Events on June 19, 2009
http://dcist.com/2009/06/dcist_interview_major_lazer.phpLibrary of Congress
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington DC 20540
June 16, 2009
Swann Foundation Announces Awards for 2009-2010
The Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon, administered by the Library of Congress, announces fellowship awards to three applicants for the academic year 2009-2010: Yasemin Gencer, Amanda Lahikainen and Jason E. Hill.
Because of an unusually large number of strong applications, the foundation’s advisory board did not award a single fellowship this year but instead decided to support three applicants’ projects with smaller awards.
Gencer, a doctoral candidate in the history of art at Indiana University, will receive a fellowship to support research for her dissertation titled “Pushing Out Islam: Cartoons of the Reform Period in Turkey (1918-1928).” She will contend that political cartoons produced during this decade―a decade that is critical to the history of modern Turkey―display and define a secular Turkish culture. This effect is achieved by contrasting symbols of Islam and Arabic culture with those of Turkish modernism. In many of these cartoons, Gencer says, textual and visual elements reinforce one another to advance a new Turkish Republic that is seeking to disengage itself from its Islamic past, stressing its secular and thus non-Islamic political and social structure, and thereby, aligning itself with modern Europe.
Lahikainen, a doctoral candidate in the history of art at Brown University, was awarded support for her investigation into ways in which British political satires used the French Revolution to represent and comment upon English domestic politics from 1789 to 1804 (from the fall of the Bastille to Napoleon’s coronation as Emperor.) In her dissertation titled “Anglicizing the French Revolution: The Politics of Humor in Late Eighteenth-Century English Political Graphic Satire,” she will focus on a number of works by Isaac Cruikshank, James Gillray, Richard Newton, Thomas Rowlandson and James Sayers, analyzing how such graphic satirists capitalized on the fear of religious dissent, violence and radicalism at home, maintenance of political hegemony over Ireland, and continual threat of a French invasion. Central to her study of such imagery is the way in which humorous satires addressing serious events invited shifting responses of laughter, horror, and fear within a single frame.
Hill will receive an award to help complete his dissertation titled “The Artist as Reporter: Picturing the News at PM Daily, 1940-1948.” A doctoral candidate in the history of art at the University of Southern California, Hill will examine the place of cartooning within the visual repertoire of PM Daily, a newspaper whose editorial independence and sophisticated visual program attracted the participation of many of the era’s most celebrated artists, including cartoonists Charles E. Martin, Ad Reinhardt, Arthur Szyk and Theodore Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss).
During the coming academic year, the three recipients of awards from the Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon will conduct research in not only the Prints and Photographs Division's rich holdings of graphic art, but also use relevant periodical holdings in such other divisions as the African and Middle East Division and Serial and Government Publications Division.
New York advertising executive Erwin Swann (1906 1973) established the Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon in 1967. An avid collector, Swann assembled a large group of original drawings by over 500 artists, spanning two centuries, which his estate bequeathed to the Library of Congress in the 1970s. Swann's original purpose was to build a collection of original drawings by significant creators of humorous and satiric art and to encourage the study of original cartoon and caricature drawings as works of art. The foundation=s support of research and academic publication is carried out in part through a program of fellowships.
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PR09-122
6/16/09
ISSN: 0731-3527
“The real beauty of the human body, as it turns out, has little to do with outward appearance. It is displayed in and beneath the skin in a remarkable demonstration of economy and efficiency.”
— David Macaulay from The Way We Work
“David Macaulay: Author Talk & Book Signing”
When: Friday, June 12, 2009 (1:00-2:30 p.m.)
Saturday, June 13, 2009 (10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. & 1:00-2:30 p.m.)
Where: National Museum of Health and Medicine
What: Join David Macaulay for an interactive and lively discussion about his new book, “The Way We Work,” as he illuminates the most important machine of all -- the human body. Your body is made up of various complex systems, and Macaulay is a master at making the complex understandable. He shows how the parts of the body work together, from the mechanics of a hand, to the process by which the heart pumps blood, to the chemical exchanges necessary to sustain life. A book signing will follow the discussion.
Cost: FREE!
Bring your kids along! This is a great opportunity to teach children about the human body.
Photo ID required.
Information: nmhminfo@afip.osd.mil or (202) 782-2200
David Macaulay bio: Born on December 2, 1946, Macaulay was eleven when his family moved from England to the United States. An early fascination with simple technology and a love of model-making and drawing ultimately led him to study architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. He received his degree in 1969 after spending his fifth year with RISD’s European Honors Program in Rome. Macaulay is probably best known for a very thick book called “The Way Things Work” (1988), an exhaustively researched compendium of the intricate workings involved in almost anything that functions. It was followed by “Black and White,” winner of the 1991 Caldecott Medal. Over the next decade, Macaulay published eight additional books, and in 2003 he began a volume about the workings of the human body—the results of which comprise this exhibition. In 2006, Macaulay was named a MacArthur fellow.