Ottawa – Carleton University’s film studies unit is launching the World Cinema Forum. The Forum plans to showcase masters of world cinema to an Ottawa audience.

The inaugural event features acclaimed Japanese film director Satoko Yokohama, who will present her latest film Bare Essence of Life, and lecture on her work on Wednesday, September 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Room 435 of the St. Patrick’s building at Carleton.

The event is also sponsored by the School of Linguistics and Language Studies with thanks to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where director Yokohama’s film is being screened.

The Forum is the brainchild of Carleton Film Studies Professor Aboubakar Sanogo. “Every year, TIFF invites brilliant film personalities to Toronto so it just made sense to expand the venue by bringing some of these people to Ottawa to talk about their craft and their lives. The forum will allow our students to meet these important filmmakers and hear more about film cultures, movements, institutions, practices, developments.”

“We think this event will build on Carleton’s expertise in the area of international cinema and make the School a focal point for the study of global cinema,” says Brian Foss, director of the School for Studies in Art and Culture.

Professor Sanogo says he plans on pursuing a full partnership with TIFF for future events. “I would like to thank Cameron Bailey, co-director of the Toronto International Film Festival, and his staff, namely Giovanna Fulvi, for instantly understanding the importance of this initiative and supporting it.” He will also seek partnerships for the Forum with other film festivals, embassies and various institutions.

Professor Sanogo has just completed research on the history of documentary films in Africa. His other research areas include the relationship between film form, theory and history, race, colonialism and cinema, African cinema and documentary film studies.

Associate professor Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano was also involved in the creation of the new Forum. Her research focuses on Japanese cinema, especially the relationship with Japanese modernity in the 1920s and 1930s, the impact of new media on Japanese cinema and East Asian cinemas in global culture. She is the author of Nippon Modern: Japanese Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s (University of Hawai’i Press, 2008).