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Satoshi Kon Documentary Streams in U.S. for 7 Days

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art will stream Carlotta Films' French documentary film Satoshi Kon, l'illusionniste (previously titled Satoshi Kon: La Machine À Rêves) by director Pascal-Alex Vincent in the United States in Eventive for seven days from March 26 onwards.

Update: The Japan Information & Culture Center (JICC) will stream the documentary as part of a retrospective film series for Satoshi Kon from March 26 to April 10. There will be five virtual weekend screenings during that time for Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika, and Satoshi Kon, l'illusionniste. The project originally began as part of the JICC's feature film anime series.

The film had its world premiere at the Festival de Cannes 2021 from July 6-17. The film screened in the "Cannes Classics 2021: the documentaries" section of the festival. The documentary film had its North American premiere at Montreal's 25th Fantasia International Film Festival from August 5-25.

The company had previously streamed a teaser for the film that listed a 2020 release date, but the film's release window was not yet confirmed at the time due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation.

The documentary features interviews with: Mamoru Oshii, Mamoru Hosoda, Masao Maruyama, Taro Maki, Masashi Ando, Aya Suzuki, Masaaki Usada, Sadayuki Murai, Hiroyuki Okiura, Masafumi Mima, Yasutaka Tsutsui, Nobutaka Ike, Junko Iwao, Megumi Hayashibara, Shozo Iizuka, Jeremy Clapin, Marc Caro, Marie Pruvost-Delaspre, Alexis Blanchet, Dimitri Megherbi, Yael Ben Nun, Rodney Rothman, Darren Aronofsky, and Andrew Osmond.

Satoshi Kon passed away on August 24, 2010.

Kon began working as a manga creator on such works as Kaikisen (1990) before deciding to delve into the anime industry with the art design of Hiroyuki Kitakubo and Katsuhiro Otomo's Roujin Z video in 1991. He then worked on the script and art direction of "Magnetic Rose," a segment of Otomo's 1995 science-fiction anthology film Memories.

Kon first drew worldwide attention with his feature film directorial debut, the psychological suspense film Perfect Blue, in 1997. He would follow that with a string of critically acclaimed anime projects: Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Paranoia Agent (2004), and Paprika (2006). At the time of his passing, Kon was working at Madhouse on a feature film called Yume-Miru Kikai (The Dreaming Machine). Madhouse announced later that year that it had resumed production on Yume-Miru Kikai, but the project remains unfinished. Masao Maruyama most recently stated in August 2018 that the film is still unfinished. He also reported at the same time that that a script is being written for an anime adaptation of Satoshi Kon's OPUS manga.

Update: Added information on Japan Information & Culture Center. Source: Email correspondence

Source: Eventive

Disclaimer: Andrew Osmond, ANN's UK Editor, is one of the interviewees featured in the film. Andrew was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.