Film Festival

Both of my daughters have attended and enjoyed this wonderful local film festival for their entire lives. If you’re living in Hiroshima, or are lucky enough to be passing through town between the August 23 and 27, you have to make time in your schedule to drop by, if only for an hour or so. The Festival, launched in 1985 on a biennial basis, was shifted to even numbered years in 1990, which means that in those years, following the grim anniversaries of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we enjoy cartoons. That sounds flippant, perhaps, but in fact Hiroshima was selected by Association International du Film d’Animation precisely because the city is an inspirational example of international solidarity and cooperation through the medium of art. The face of the festival is a somewhat troubling mascot named Lappy, some sort of a sea lion or aardvark with an alcoholic’s nose. But my kids love him. Maybe you will too. What I love is the chance to see some genuinely outstanding animation brought to the festival by filmmakers from around the globe. There are children’s sessions, of course, with features running from cute to whimsical, but there are also some very…