Author/producer/actor Julia Morizawa’s 2D animated brief movie Dragonfly makes its Los Angeles premiere on the thirty ninth Los Angeles Asian Pacific Movie Competition on Sunday, Might 7, 8 PM, on the Japanese American Nationwide Museum. The brief screens as a part of the “Misplaced and Discovered” animation program, that includes movies depicting discarded desires, forgotten reminiscences, and lacking items.
Dragonfly tells the story of a younger lady who learns, by the eyes of her brother’s spirit, of her mom’s survival of the Tokyo Firebombing on March 9-10, 1945. The movie opens in Komoro, Japan, 1956, the place 10-year-old Sumiko chases a purple dragonfly by her household’s farm whereas her mom, Yoshiko, watches from a distance. Flashback to Tokyo, 1945 – Yoshiko, her husband, Susumu, and their child boy, Kiyoshi, are pressured to evacuate their residence when a whole bunch of B-29 bombers dropped incendiary bombs on the town, which erupted into a large firestorm.
In 2019, Morizawa’s script was acknowledged by Scriptation Showcase and Screenwriting Grasp, receiving the “Greatest Quick Screenplay Award.” It was additionally honored at competitions, together with the Austin Movie Competition, Slamdance, and WeScreenplay Numerous Voice as a semifinalist or quarterfinalist.
Morizawa’s maternal grandparents impressed the movie’s story. Whereas researching her household heritage, her mom, Sumiko, supplied little or no details about her grandparents’ life throughout WWII, besides that they lived in Tokyo when hearth pressured them again to the household farm in Komoro. It wasn’t till Morizawa started researching fires in Tokyo within the Forties that she realized concerning the firebombing and the immense tragedy. So, along with paying homage to the grandparents she by no means met, Morizawa’s movie raises consciousness concerning the largely unknown historic occasion.
Brian Sturges, James Babbin, John Titchenal, Lucas A. Ferrara, Derek Kolterman, and Christopher Luk function government producers on the movie. Maria Marta Linero is the animation director, with Eva Benitez the lead animator. The music consists by Aiko Fukushima, and the sound design by Giorgia Garcia-Moreno. The voice expertise contains Morizawa, Erika Ishii, Miya Kodama, and Thomas Isao Morinaka.
Dragonfly will display on Sunday, Might 7 at 8 PM on the Japanese American Nationwide Museum, 100 North Central Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Ticket info is on the market right here.
Debbie Diamond Sarto is information editor at Animation World Community.
