SPECIAL PREVIEW SCREENING followed by a Q&A session with the director, Kazuhiro
Soda.

TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2009. 7:00 p.m. 20th floor.

MENTAL.

Japan. 2008. 135 minutes.

In Japanese with English subtitles.

Ahead of its Japan theatrical opening in June, the FCCJ has the privilege of
screening this taboo-breaking documentary, which tackles the topic of mental
illness in Japan with candor and great humanity.

Directed, produced, shot and edited by Kazuhiro Soda (director of CAMPAIGN),
with the assistance of his wife Kiyoko Kashiwagi, MENTAL won Best Documentary
Awards at the Pusan and Dubai International Film Festivals and has been
headlining film festivals around the globe.

MENTAL provides a uniquely revealing look at the complex world of outpatient
mental healthcare in Japan, a country in which the subject still remains
shameful and hidden. This attitude has deprived many of the mentally ill people
here from gaining the public’s compassion and understanding, as well as being
given the care that they deserve.

Soda and Kashiwagi take us inside the Chorale Okayama clinic, where we get to
know patients, doctors, staff, volunteers and home-helpers. We listen to these
distressed souls, many of whom are suicidal, and are moved by the selflessness
of the care-givers, who have devoted their lives to those whom many in the
“outside” world prefer to ignore.

For the first time ever on screen, MENTAL clearly shows the faces of the
patients instead of blurring them. Films of this nature usually pixilate them
and this, Soda says, only emphasizes Japanese prejudice towards the mentally ill.

Come and see MENTAL at our club before its release in Japan in June!

Kazuhiro Soda appeared with his documentary CAMPAIGN at the FCCJ in March 2008
and led a rousing Q&A with members afterward. We anticipate the same after this
screening.

Please make your reservations at the FCCJ Reception Desk (3211-3161) to allow
for seating arrangements.

All movie screenings are private, noncommercial events restricted to FCCJ
members and their guests.

Edwin Karmiol, Karen Severns. Movie Committee.