First Thursdays Film Series Presents: CATS OF MIRIKITANI -Screening And Talk With Director Linda Hattendorf

Join us for a screening and discussion of the 2006 winner of the Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award. Filmmaker Linda Hattendorf passed Jimmy Mirikitani, clad in red beret drawing pictures of cats, every day on her way home. Homeless and creating artwork on the street corner in downtown New York, Mirikitani agreed to allow Hattendorf into his life to document his artwork. After the World Trade Center collapsed into toxic smoke around their neighborhood, Hattendorf took the artist into her home. From there, the film documents the quirky relationship between filmmaker and her subject as she seeks to navigate state assistance programs for the elderly, finding in the meanwhile, Jimmy’s past in the Japanese American internment camps and its lasting mark on his family, life and art.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Linda Hattendorf, joined by artist Roger Shimomura, former Film Curator at Japan Society Kyoko Hirano and moderated by historian, critic and programmer Deirdre Boyle.

RSVP by Wednesday, October 4
Now expanded to both Cantor Film Center’s Theater 101 and Theater 102 due to the large interest in the event.

Co-sponsored by: The Japanese American National Museum, Japanese American Association and Japanese American Citizens League. Series co-sponsored by the Center for Media, Culture and History/Center for Religion and Media.