Director To Discuss Controversial Japanese Film At CWU

May 10, 2004

Contact: Djordje Popovic (509-963-1685/fax 509-963-3561/e-mail: popovicd@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG, Wash.-- Tatsuya Mori, an award-winning Japanese filmmaker, will visit Central Washington University to present and discuss "A2," his provocative 2001 documentary about Aum Shinrikyo (Aum Supreme Truth), the religious cult responsible for the 1995 subway gas attacks in Tokyo.

His free, public presentation is slated for Friday, May 14, at 6 p.m., in Science Building 147 on the Ellensburg campus. There will be a brief introduction by the author prior to the film and a question-and-answer session following the screening. Two interpreters from the University of Washington's department of Asian languages and literature will help facilitate the presentation.

On March 20, 1995, members of the small Buddhist sect released sarin gas into rush hour crowds in the Tokyo subway system. The gas killed 12 and crippled or injured thousands. Much like the September 11 terror attack in the U.S., the shock of this event is still reverberating throughout Japan today.

Mori had the opportunity to live with Aum. The time he spent with them resulted in the film, which presents a portrait of Japanese society through the eyes of Aum. The film focuses on the relationship between the cult and Japanese society at large, and the ways in which the two reflect and resemble one another.

Following the screening of his film, Mori will attempt to draw some parallels between Japanese and American society in its current climate.

Mori's presentation is sponsored by the CWU diversity education center, department of foreign languages, office of international studies and programs, philosophy department and political science department.

For more information, or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call 509-963-1685, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD 509-963-2143.