Gorgeous Entertainment - Pacific Overtures

ANIME MASTERPIECES is a series offering the best in Japanese animated feature films. Each film is accompanied by a Study Guide created by preeminent scholars of cinema, history and popular culture, and screenings are followed by panels and talkbacks. The ANIME MASTERPIECES series premieres with GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, which Roger Ebert calls "an emotional experience so powerful it forces a rethinking of animation." ANIME MASTERPIECES screening events are completely scaleable to an institution's budget and programming needs, with options including:

"Do It Yourself-style" presentations featuring local scholars/authorities in a panel/talkbacks
Panels and talkbacks featuring ANIME MASTERPIECES Study Guide contributors and/or filmmakers from Japan

For more information and booking, please contact Kyle McKeveny kyle@gorgeousentertainment.com

Current ANIME MASTERPIECES contributors include:

ROLAND KELTS

Roland Kelts is the author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2006 in the US and Europe, and in Japanese by Random House Kodansha in 2007. An updated and expanded paperback edition was released by Palgrave Macmillan in 2007. He is also a Lecturer at the University of Tokyo and the University of the Sacred Heart Tokyo, an editor of A Public Space literary journal, and a columnist for The Daily Yomiuri. He divides his time between New York and Tokyo.

IAN CONDRY

Ian Condry is associate professor of Japanese cultural studies in Foreign Languages and Literatures at MIT. His first book Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization was published by Duke University Press in 2006. He is currently working on a book called Anime Revolution: The Making of Japan's Media Success Story. Since 2006, he has been organizing the MIT/Harvard Cool Japan research project. He currently resides in Boston.

SUSAN J. NAPIER

Susan J. Napier is Professor of Japanese Studies at Tufts University. A specialist in Japanese literature and culture, she is the author of four books, including The Fantastic in Japanese Literature: The Subversion of Modernity, Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle, and most recently, From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2007. Napier lives in Boston.

BRIAN RUH

Brian Ruh is the author of Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii. He is on the editorial board of the journal Mechademia and has contributed chapters to a number of books on anime and Asian cinema. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University. He currently resides in Austin. Brian Ruh is the author of Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii. He is on the editorial board of the journal Mechademia and has contributed chapters to a number of books on anime and Asian cinema. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University. He currently resides in Austin.

FREDERIK L. SCHODT

Frederik L. Schodt has written widely on Japanese history, popular culture, and technology. Among his better known works are Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics (Kodansha International, 1983) and Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga (Stone Bridge Press, 1996). His writings on manga, and his translations of them, helped trigger the current popularity of Japanese comics in the English-speaking world, and in 2000 resulted in his being awarded the Special Category of the Asahi Shimbun's prestigious Osamu Tezuka Culture Award. His latest book, The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution was published by Stone Bridge Press in 2007. He currently resides in San Francisco.

CHARLES SOLOMON

Charles Solomon has written on the subject of Anime for the New York Times, TV Guide, Newsweek (Japan), Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, and National Public Radio's Day To Day. His book, Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation (Knopf, 1989; reprinted, Wings, 1994), was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and the first film book to be nominated for a National Book Critics’s Circle Award. He has also done animation programming for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, and the Sundance International film festivals. He currently resides in Los Angeles.