Echo Park Film Center celebrates Japanese culture

ECHO PARK –– Echo Park is not exactly a hotbed of Japanese culture. So, how did the Echo Park Film Center come to host five days of movies and discussions as part of Japanese Culture Week?

Paolo Davanzo, co-director of Echo Park Film Center, said that his organization became involved because of the connection he made more than 15 years ago when he was teaching filmmaking at College of the Canyons. One of his pupils was an exchange student from Japan, Shinji Kitagawa, a filmmaker and producer who now works for Japanese broadcaster NHK and organized Japanese Culture Week.

Starting today, Jan. 5,the film center along with the Japanese National Museum in Little Tokyo  will host five days of movies, lectures and other events. The film center’s offerings this week range from films on cycling to Mt. Fuji and the customers of a 24-hour ramen restaurant to presentations on Japan’s kawaii pop culture and New Year’s cuisine.

“We are absolute fans and lovers of Japan – its people, its food, its culture and its traditions,” Davanzo said in an email. “We also acknowledge and respect the vibrant history of Japanese Americans here in Los Angeles and are eager to plant a seed for more collaborations in the future.”

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Jesús Sanchez, Publisher
The Eastsider

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