Brooklyn Museum Presents Public Programs

Watch cinematic visions of Japan, including films that influenced Takashi Murakami and classics that depict both traditional and contemporary Japanese culture. Discussions follow select films.

Sunday, May 18, 1 p.m.
The Dagger of Kamui (Rintaro, 1985, 132 min., animated, NR).

On the eve of the Meiji restoration an orphan travels from Japan to the American West and back in an attempt to avenge the murder of his parents.

Sunday, May 18, 3:30 p.m.
47 Ronin (Kon Ichikawa, 1994, 129 min., NR)
A classic true story of Samurai humor.

Saturday, June 14, 1 p.m.
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Hamaru Oshii, 2004, 100 min., animated, PG-13)
Young girls transformed into android dolls fight back.

Saturday, June 14, 3:30 p.m.
Sisters of the Gion (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936, 95 min., NR)
Two geisha sisters, divided over their devotion to their patrons.

Film: Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema
Saturday, June 21, 2–4 p.m.
A documentary about how silent films treated women’s suffrage activists (Kay Sloan, 2003, 36 min., NR). The director will discuss the film and the impact of women on the American political process with Melissa Messina, curator of the exhibition Votes for Women, and author-television producer Coline Jenkins.

In celebration of the special exhibitions © MURAKAMI and Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770–1900, this series explores common themes informing Japanese art and artists, past and present, on both sides of the Pacific.

Saturday, May 17, 2–4 p.m.
“Envisioning Japan: Creative Dialogues with the Wider World”
A discussion about how Japanese artists have created a market for their work that is simultaneously both Japanese and international. With Adam Kern, author of Manga from the Floating World: Comicbook Culture and the Kibyoshi of Edo Japan; Miwako Tezuka, Assistant Curator, the Asia Society; Susan Napier, author of Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke; and artist Aiko Nakagawa. Moderated by Curator of Asian Art Joan Cummins.

Saturday, May 31, 2–4 p.m.
“Envisioning Japan: Portrayals of Women, Beauty, and the Erotic”
This talk considers how gender and sexuality are manifested in both historic and contemporary Japanese art and popular culture. With Sarah Thompson, Assistant Curator of Japanese Prints, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Nina Cornyetz, author of Dangerous Women, Deadly Words: Phallic Fantasy and Modernity in Three Japanese Writers; Midori Yoshimoto, author of Into Performance: Japanese Women Artists in New York; and Japanese artist Noriko Shinohara. Moderated by independent curator Eric C. Shiner.

Curator Talk: Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770–1900
Sunday, May 18, 1 p.m.
Laura Mueller, curator of the exhibition, gives a gallery talk.

Panel Discussion: “Gen X, Gen Y, Baby Boomers, Traditionalists
Sunday, June 1, 2–4 p.m.
Generation X, Generation Y, Baby Boomers, and Traditionalists—these are the current descriptors of the ages of female activists. Join four members of Gens X and Y as they discuss activism and women’s issues today. Sharna Goldseker, Vice President of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies and Director of 21/64, moderates a panel with Ai-jen Poo, Lead Organizer of Domestic Workers United and Associate Director of CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities; Olivia Greer, Associate Producer of Culture Project and Founder of EMANCIPATE; and Kyung Ji Rhee, Director of Prison Moratorium.

Artist Talk: “The Inspiration of Activism in Art”
Sunday, June 15, 2 p.m.
Feminist artist Cristina Biaggi discusses the impact her political involvement has had on her art and writing.

Wild Card Talk: “Health Starts With You”
Sunday, June 22, 2 p.m.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn discusses NYC Women First, a women’s health initiative.

Library Talk: “Brooklyn in Whitman’s Time”
Sunday, June 22, 3 p.m.
Historian Francis Morrone, author of An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn, talks about what Brooklyn looked like in 1835, when Walt Whitman worked for the Brooklyn Apprentice’s Library, nucleus of the Brooklyn Museum. This talk is part of a series celebrating the 185th anniversary of the founding of the Library.

Creative Art-Making: Garden Sketches and Prints
Saturday, June 14, 2–4 p.m.,
Meet in the Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion, 1st Floor

Drawing on the beautiful summer blossoms in our neighboring Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the print-making techniques of the nineteenth century Japanese Utagawa school, this workshop for adults offers unique methods to transform reality into two dimensions. -- www.brooklynmuseum.org