Happy Birthday! The Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow turns 1 year-old!

Well, it’s been quite a year, but as of this month The Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow is celebrating its first anniversary! From our modest beginning as a Facebook group with a handful of local members to the group ballooning to over 500 members from every corner of the world, becoming involved in screenings here in Toronto, and of course the new blog and all I can say is it’s been quite a ride. I started the group as a fan of Japanese cinema and it’s been a fantastic way to meet like-minded people as well as some of the people that turned me onto Japanese films in the first place. In the end I’m still just a fan and while turning out up to four film reviews a week has been a mountain of work at times it has also been a great way to deepen my knowledge of Japanese cinema. I hope that we’ll be learning more together over the next year and years to come.

On this first birthday I would like to thank some people who helped in big and small ways with the running of, support to, and opportunities given to the Pow-Wow. Please excuse me if anyone is left out.

Thanks go to Bob Turnbull, Marc-Saint Cyr, Robyn Dranfield, and Shaun Sayer for their much appreciated contributions up front and behind the scenes, Adam Lopez of Toronto After Dark, Jeff Harju and Ken Bole from The Canada Japan Society, Todd Brown and Andrew Mack from Twitchfilm.net, Mariko Liliefeldt, Tani Miki and the staff of The Japan Foundation Toronto, Emile Dirks, editor of Kino-Eye Toronto, Thomas Silver and the folks at UTARPA for the opportunities they’ve given to The Pow-Wow, great thanks is given to Jasper Sharp, Mark Schilling, Marc Walkow, Mandi Apple, Ryan Bruce Levey, the staff at Innis College and James Heron for all their support, and to all the members that make up The Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow. Lastly, a big thanks to Fi for her putting up with all the Japanese-ness around the apartment.