Panel Discussion: Women in Film

A unique discussion focusing on the advancement and increased visibility of female filmmakers in a global context as well as in both the U.S. and Japanese film industries. Moderated by Joel Neville Anderson, Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies and Film at Purchase College and programmer of JAPAN CUTS (2014-2021). Panelists include Naoko Ogigami, director of Riverside Mukolitta, which is among the selected titles for this series (Friday, November 18 at 8 pm), S. Casper Wong, an award-winning New York-based filmmaker, technology lawyer, social entrepreneur, activist and Founder of OO Media, and Cidney Hue, Sci-Fi Director, Filmmaker and Founder of PANO (formerly NYC Women Filmmakers).

About the Panelists & Moderator:

Naoko Ogigami was born in Japan. After graduating from Chiba University, she went to the United States in 1994 to study film at the graduate school of the University of Southern California, School of Cinema-Television. She returned to Japan in 2000 to make a movie. She received attention for her directorial debut, Yoshino’s Barber Shop (2003), which received a Special Mention at the Kinderfilmfest in the Berlin Film Festival in 2004. Her third film, Kamome Diner (2006), has been very successful both domestically and internationally. Her fourth film, Glasses (2007), received Manfred Salzgeber Award of the Berlin Film Festival and was nominated in the Sundance Film Festival. Toilet (2010), made in Toronto, Canada, is her first English language film. Close-Knit (2017) received the Teddy Jury Award at the Berlin Film Festival and many awards throughout the world. Rilakkuma and Kaoru (2019) is a stop-motion animation series written by Ogigami that premiered on Netflix. She was a jury member for Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Estonia) in 2017, and Seoul Eco Film Festival in 2019.

S. Casper Wong is an award-winning New York-based filmmaker, technology lawyer and social entrepreneur. Her documentary feature debut, The LuLu Sessions, has won 10 international awards and nominations in every major category, with a U.S. broadcast on PBS’s World Channel America ReFramed Series. She is the Creator of the Peace Pod Project, a multi-platform VR/AR/XR dedicated space for facilitating reconciliation between two people. She is a two-time winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Screenwriting Grants and a New York State Council on the Arts Grantee. She has directed and produced in China since 2005 and served as the studio executive for Roger Corman’s first co-productions with China. Prior to receiving her MFA from NYU in directing, Casper was Senior Attorney for IBM General Counsel in Silicon Valley, and received a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University. She is the Founder of Asian American Women Media Makers, and was on the Board of Directors at New York Women in Film and Television, leading its Innovation Initiative.

Cidney Hue is a writer-director with a focus on building inclusive futures through science fiction. Her most recent award-winning film, OVUM, is a Black Mirror-esque short on the convergence of reproductive rights and VR technology. Her previous award-winning short, ODESSA, recounts the journey of an astronaut’s last night on Earth. Her webseries for Wired & reddit, CYBORG NATION, profiles scientists at the forefront of prosthetics, robotics and brain-computer interfaces. She teaches filmmaking at her alma mater, NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Cidney founded PANO (formerly NYC Women Filmmakers) in 2015, where she leads its thousands strong community to support women, non-binary & GNC filmmakers across the US. Cidney can often be found traveling the world with her camera in tow, capturing Earth’s most spectacular natural phenomenona. Her lifelong goal is to visit space by 2050, so you should email her if you have an extra seat on your rocketship.

Joel Neville Anderson is Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies and Film at Purchase College, State University of New York. Research and teaching encompass personal documentary, community media, experimental film/video, environmental justice, Japanese cinema, and film festival studies. Dr. Anderson’s writing appears in Studies in Documentary Film, Millennium Film Journal, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Afterimage, Hyperallergic, Senses of Cinema, Film on the Faultline, and the Routledge Handbook of Japanese Cinema. His work has been supported by the Flaherty Seminar, Signal Culture, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, and Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. He programmed JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film, the largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema in North America, from 2014-2021.

Part of the ACA Cinema Project, The Female Gaze: Women Filmmakers from JAPAN CUTS and Beyond
November 11—20, 2022

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Image clockwise from top left: Naoko Ogigami, S. Casper Wong, Joel Neville Anderson, Cydney Hue.

ACA Cinema Project, The Female Gaze: Women Filmmakers from JAPAN CUTS and Beyond is Co-presented by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan.

Lead Sponsor

Japan Society programs are made possible by leadership support from Booth Ferris Foundation and Shiseido Americas. Film programs are generously supported by ORIX Corporation USA, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and endowment support from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund. Additional season support is provided by The Globus Family, David Toberisky, Akiko Koide and Shohei Koide, Geoff and Fumi Matters, Laurel Gonsalves, and David S. Howe. Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the exclusive Japanese airline sponsor of Japan Society Film.