Cinema East Film 'After Life'

The next film of the Cinema East film series at Pickford Film Center (1318 Bay Street) is Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life, which screens on Thursday, December 5, 2024, at 7:45 p.m., with a matinee showing that same day at 11:00 a.m.   

After Life was Kore-eda’s second feature after his 1995 debut, and it is described on the Pickford’s website as “a bittersweet fantasia in which the recently deceased find themselves in a limbo realm where they must select a single cherished moment from their life to be recreated on film for them to take into the next world.” 

Conceptually grounded in Kore-eda’s documentary-like approach to the material, which he shaped through interviews with hundreds of Japanese citizens, what emerges is a panoramic vision of the human experience, “a quietly profound meditation on memory, our interconnectedness, and the amberlike power of cinema to freeze time.”

The Cinema East film series is co-presented by Western Libraries and Pickford Film Center, with film selections curated by WWU librarian Jeff Purdue. Films are often accompanied by introductions from educators and experts. 

After Life will be introduced by Tyler Walker, Assistant Professor of Japanese at WWU.  His scholarship on twentieth century Japanese literature has recently appeared in the Journal of Japanese Studies and in Monumenta Nipponica. He teaches courses at Western on Japanese language, literature, and film.

For more information about the Cinema East series, please see the PFC website, or contact Jeff Purdue at: purduej@wwu.edu, (360)-650-7750. 

All PFC theaters are ADA accessible with wheelchair seating, and closed captioning and assistive listening devices are available at the box office. For questions about or to request disability accommodation, please contact Meghan Schilling, meghan@pickfordfilmcenter.org.