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I’ve had the great pleasure of working with the talented people at Kowatanda Films  for this project. I met with both Mina  and Anshul  during my trip to Tokyo. Before – and during – my trip, Mina was so kind as to share her tips and help me guide my way through Tokyo. It was highly appreciated and of great value for my trip. It wouldn’t have been the same without her. I was so fascinated by the beauty of Tokyo, the culture and especially the people. I’ve had the great privilege of travelling a lot in my life, but I’ve never met people as nice as the Japanese people. I still keep in touch with Mina, and we share similarities and differences between our cultures from time to time. I will forever be fascinated by Japan and its beauty and I’m in desperate need to visit Tokyo again. When I do, I will make sure to spend more time with Mina who’s such a great ambassador for her country. Tokyo really hits differently, and I would be so lost without the guidance of a local; now it has my heart and I’ll never get over the beauty of it.

The event I ended up creating as a result of the trip just had to be a tribute to Kowatanda Films. I was lucky enough to watch several of their movies and ended up creating an event around one of them; “Kontora “. This movie was the heart of the event, even though it attracted the least audiences. But this was just as I expected. It’s hard to try to convince Norwegian audience to go watch a (for them) completely unknown, black/white, Japanese movie for two hours. But to change and develop people’s habits you have to start somewhere, and you need to give them the opportunity. And so I did; I started. Because I really wanted other people in my city to get an opportunity to watch this great movie. My goal for the event was to broaden the perspective and challenge the habits of our average cinema goer. The event attracted both existing and new audiences, which I’m very satisfied with.

We collaborated with a Japanese restaurant across the street from us, who handed out small portions of Japanese food to all who attended. It gave a perfect lift to the event. We also gave the guests free popcorn, soft drinks and a small goodie bag. It was such a nice atmosphere in the cinema this day and those who attended were so satisfied.

We introduced all the screenings with a small greeting, a recap of the film they were about to watch and information about upcoming events. Before “Kontora” we had a special video-greeting from the two main characters in the movie, which was so great. It really felt very special for the audiences, especially since we are the only cinema in Norway to ever show this movie – and we made sure to make a point out of this. It was a unique experience.

A special situation occurred when we realised we had the family of a Norwegian guy working on Kontora in the audience. We had no idea about this, and the world suddenly felt very small and it was such a special situation. He is from Bodø and lives in Tokyo working in the film industry. It was special in so many ways, but especially since his mother, father and brother – who attended the screening – never have been able to see any of his work in a movie theatre before, since these movies don’t normally get Norwegian distribution. Luckily they approached me when they came and told me this story. So when I introduced the movie I made sure to give them a shout out from the stage. I thought it was a very special day and a great experience for them and it also added a layer to the experience for the rest of the audience.

I’m glad to have been able to give our audiences this nice event with other movies than the ones they normally attend. The movie selection for the event was great and thoughtfully put together with a selection for all age groups: both for kids, youths, adults, anime-fans and those who value a great movie experience.

During my time in Tokyo I also got the opportunity to explore different cinemas together with Mina and Anshul. We went to small arthouse cinemas and big movie theatres to get the right feeling of variation in the city. It was an amazing experience for someone who’s been working in the cinema industry for more than 15 years and experienced cinemas all over the world. I also had several meetings with cinema-managers and learnt a lot about everything from the booking and programming of the weekly cinema schedule to how to operate a cinema in Tokyo. It gave me a great perspective on the cinema going experience from the opposite side of the planet and I made many interesting observations about its similarities and differences.

The excitement and interest from the audience made me realize that there’s a potential here that we are nowhere close to utilizing. Japanese anime has its audience across the globe, but lesser-known independent movies have lots of unreached potential. In the future we might aim to create a smaller event around Japanese movies, using my new contacts and network in the Japanese film industry. An event like this should consist of a broad variety of movies, like we did this time too – ranging from Japanese anime to action to quality movies. I look forward to broadening people’s preferences of movie selection at the theatre.