Boston Japan Film Festival

Thank you for your participation!

Boston Japan Film Festival 2022

DATE: Saturday, December 3rd, 2022 from 3 - 6 pm

LOCATION: Stata Center (MIT building 32-123), Room 123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA

If you don’t have an MIT ID, then you’ll need to register to get a Tim Ticket to access our building. Tim Ticket information will be sent to you after you register.

- PROGRAM -

-Short Films-

Summer Ends / 牡丹の花

TOKYO ANIMALS

Mi

MARE

15 min intermission

-Feature Films-

Living While Black, In Japan

Born with it / 生まれつき

Discussion with directors

Light Refreshment

- LINE UP -

Mi | Director Masayoshi Nakamura & Zak Engel |2022 | 4:23 | animation | United States

- DISCUSSION -

We are going to have a discussion with directors, Keith Bedford from”Living While Black, In Japan” and Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, Jr from”Born with it” after screening films. Theodore R.Life Jr, producer / director, is going to participate in it as a moderator too.

- GUESTS -

Keith Bedford 　(Filmmaker, Photojournalist)

Los Angeles Times photo editor Keith Bedford has spent the majority of his career in journalism as a freelancer, frequently contributing to the New York Times, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg and covering everything from natural disasters to presidential politics. Bedford moved to Iowa with four colleagues for the better part of 2007 to follow Barack Obama’s campaign. He believed he would be covering the first African American to become president of the United States.

Bedford followed that up by spending three and a half years covering India and China. After returning to the states, he joined the staff of the Boston Globe as a photojournalist for three years producing stories on politics, race and the opioid crisis before resuming his freelance career as both a photojournalist and a producer of short films for the likes of the BBC, CNN’s Great Big Story, Instagram and Yahoo. Bedford grew up in Baltimore and attended the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, Jr　(writer/director)

Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour is a writer/director born and raised in Houston. He attended Stanford University for his Bachelors and grad film school at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts Asia. He started his career in Japan where he developed a passion for telling authentic, sensitive human-centered stories. He made his feature debut by writing and directing BLACK BOX for Blumhouse and Amazon as part of the WELCOME TO BLUMHOUSE series. The film launched in October 2020 to great reviews, including a Critics Pick from the New York Times. Since the release of BLACK BOX, he's directed episodes of CW's IN THE DARK, MIDNIGHT CLUB for Netflix, THE RECRUIT also for Netflix, SHOGUN for FX and STAR TREK DISCOVERY for Paramount+. Emmanuel is currently writing a TV series for MGM and his follow up feature film.

Theodore R.Life Jr（Producer/Director）

Theodore R. Life Jr. is a Producer/Director for film, television and the theater. He has been awarded a Fulbright Journalist Fellowship, three CINE Golden Eagles, named a Sony Innovator,and nominated for three Emmys.
His film Reason to Hope was awarded Best Film at the 26th annual International Festival of Black Cinema in Berlin and he just completed a feature film based on the Akutagawa Prize winning novella, Cocktail Party. He also produced and directed Live your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story that chronicles the impact of the American English teacher who lost her life during the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.