Japan/U.S. co-production film will screen at Asian American Showcase!

I am a Japanese filmmaker in U.S. We have a feature film called,
"THE FIRST BREATH OF TENGAN REI" http://www.tenganrei.com/media.html
screens at Asian American Showcase, Thursday, April 9 at 8:15 P.M.
at The Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., Chicago

The film is:
The international psychological drama The First Breath of Tengan Rei, written and directed by Chicago husband/wife filmmaking team Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski, screens Thursday, April 9 at 8:15 p.m. as part of the 14th Annual Asian American Showcase at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St. in Chicago.

“Great performances.” – Chicago Tribune
“An auspicious debut.” – Chicago Sun-Times
“An astute psychological drama. Beautifully shot. Wonderful acting”
– Chicago Public Radio

In The First Breath of Tengan Rei, Japanese star Erika (of Kore-Eda’s renowned After Life) plays Rei, a young Okinawan woman who kidnaps Paris, the teenage son of a U.S. Marine convicted of raping her when she was a girl. While Rei holds Paris captive, the two are drawn together despite the scars of the past, as they prepare for a final confrontation with Paris’s father, Nelson.

Kajino, a native of Nagano, Japan, moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1997 to start her film career. There she met Koziarski, from Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood, was completing his senior film at Antioch College. Together they have helped produce dozens of independent films, all the while battling to make their own feature film. They finally got their chance when Junko was inspired by a tragic true story that she felt a special responsibility and opportunity to tell, as a Japanese woman living in the U.S. Kajino and Koziarski filmed in Chicago and Okinawa with a Japanese and American cast and crew, overcoming language and cultural barriers and shooting through a typhoon in a former leper colony off the Okinawa coast.

Chicago stage veteran and South Side resident Sean Nix, mostly recently seen in Timeline Theatre Company’s production of Gore Vidal’s Weekend, portrays Nelson. Nelson’s partner in crime, Carter, is portrayed by local film and TV actor Ric Arthur, who himself served in the Marines in Okinawa. North Carolina newcomer Katori Eason plays Paris. Mark Messing, leader of acclaimed local band Mucca Pazza, designed the sound for the film with Lou Mallozzi of Experimental Sound Studio and composed the score, featuring music by cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and Califone guitarist Jim Becker.

Koziarski and Kajino, who live in Pilsen, will hold a Q&A; after the screening. Screeners available on request. Download press kit and stills at http://www.tenganrei.com/media.html. Asian American Showcase runs April 3-16. For more information on Asian American Showcase see
http://www.faaim.org./

Thank you very much,
Junko Kajino
312 850 1247