PAPER CITY

Giving Voice to Witnesses to an Atrocity

Venue: Stranger
From March 1 (Fri) - March 7 (Thu), March 10 (Sun), March 31 (Sun), 2024 - April ４ (Thu), 2024
Official website: papercityfilm.com/
Theater website: stranger.jp/theater/?anchor=access
Theater website: stranger.jp/movie/2541/
Trailer: https://youtu.be/M7yprcYGhMA
Tariff:  General: ￥1,800 / Koto, Sumida residences, workers, students: ¥1,200 / College students, seniors and members: ￥1,200 / High school and junior high school students or under and members: ￥900.
Advance tickets: stranger.jp/?anchor=screen

Title: ペーパーシティ　東京大空襲の記憶 (Paper City Tokyo Daikushu no Kioku)
Director: Adrian Francis (エイドリアン･フランシス)
Duration: 80 min

If you’ve spent any time in Tokyo or as a student of history, the events of March 10, 1945 are known to you. But too few realize what happened in the aftermath of the most destructive air raid in history. Tokyo-based Australian filmmaker Adrian Francis devoted seven years to documenting that aftermath, and his illuminating 2022 Paper City: Memories of the Tokyo Firebombing is now being revived with English subtitles. It’s essential viewing.

Paper City revisits the details of the raid, which began just after midnight on that fateful date, when 279 B-29s flew in and, for nearly 3 hours, bombarded the city with clusters of napalm bomblets that had been specifically engineered to destroy wood-and-paper housing in residential areas by igniting fast-burning fires. Eventually, the U.S. warplanes laid waste to a quarter of Tokyo and claimed over 100,000 lives.

In his award-winning film, Francis follows a trio of aging survivors who have spent their lives trying to preserve their experiences of the unprecedented tragedy for future generations. In part, they’ve done this by leading a little-known campaign for recognition and restitution. Over the past 75 years, they’ve actively campaigned for a public memorial, a museum or some token compensation for civilians who lost everything. The government’s reaction to their efforts is sure to shock even the most hardened viewers.

As the director has noted, “Berlin has its Holocaust Memorial and Hiroshima has the Atomic Bomb Dome — places where people come from around the world to learn, mourn and pay their respects. But in Tokyo, where tens of thousands lost their lives in a single night, hardly a trace remains, and rarely does anyone even talk about it.”

Paper City gives lasting voice to the remaining survivors, expertly weaving together harrowing testimonies, rarely-seen archival footage and modern-day advocacy, as the film explores trauma, remembrance and the state’s role as gatekeepers of history.

Stranger