Japanese film fest this weekend

The Salt Lake City Film Center will curate a small festival of contemporary and classic Japanese cinema for Utah audiences this weekend. The Japan Foundation and the consulate-general of Japan in Denver invited the center to hold screenings and post-screening conversations.

Katsuhiro Otomo's classic "Akira" and his latest offering, "Mushishi," which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival, will be shown.

The festival will feature family classics, award-winning documentaries, a dozen filmmakers and actors and two films that were made in Utah, "American Pastime" and "Big Dreams Little Tokyo."

Films will cover topics as universal as the nature of truth in "Rashomon" and North Korean-Japanese relations in "Abduction."

All films are free and open to the public. The festival runs through Sunday, July 1, at the Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts, 138 W. 300 South.

Visit www.slcfilmcenter.org for complete program details and other upcoming events

SLC Film Center offers a variety of films to local audiences through community screenings and discussions, outreach programs and visiting artists and professionals. Emphasizing social content and artistic excellence, the center presents documentary, independent and dramatic cinema year-round. It collaborates with various educational and community organizations to promote a diversity of ideas, to provide forums for underrepresented groups and to develop new audiences for film.