Starting on the 15th December the wonderful Sottodiciotto Film Festival in Turin is honouring the career of the Oscar nominated Japanese American Animator, Jimmy Murakami, with a dedicated retrospective of his life’s work. Also showing is Sé Merry Doyle’s documentary “Jimmy Murakami – Non Alien” which tells the story of Jimmy’s incarceration alongside 40,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor . Jimmy is in very exalted company as Turin are also having retrospectives on Alan Parker “The Comittments”, Jaco Von Dormael, “Toto the Hero”, Marco Risi, “Maradona, the Hand of God“, Delphine Gleize “Carnage”, and Andrea Segre, “The Green Blod”. Among the films to be screened from Jimmy’s amazing catalogue are his evergreen “Snowman”, his apocalyptic nuclear war film ‘”When the Wind Blows”, Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol” plus his groundbreaking experimental works: “Breath”, “The Magic Pear Tree”, and “The Good Friend”. Jimmy who has been based in Ireland for the last forty years is delighted that Turin is honouring him with such a vast retrospective. Is it not time that Ireland followed suit as most filmmakers here would acknowledge Jimmy’s contribution in kick-starting the Irish Film Industry?
