First Friday Film: Miss Hokusai

As all of Edo flocks to see the work of the famous painter Hokusai, his daughter O-Ei toils diligently inside his studio, unknown to the public. Her masterful portraits and erotic sketches – sold under the name of her father – are coveted by upper-class elites and journeymen printmakers alike. In public, O-Ei knows and respects “her place,” but at home in the studio, she’s as brash and uninhibited as her father, smoking a pipe while sketching erotic scenes that would make contemporary Japanese ladies blush. Despite her talent and fiercely independent spirit, O-Ei struggles under the domineering influence of her father and is ridiculed for lacking the life experience she portrays in her art. MISS HOKUSAI’s lively Edo (present day Tokyo) is filled with yokai spirits, dragons, and conniving tradesmen, while O-Ei’s relationships with her famously impetuous father and blind younger sister provide a powerful emotional underpinning to this rollicking and sumptuously-animated feminist coming-of-age tale.

Join us for our new 2017 season! First Friday Films take place May through October, and are presented in collaboration with The Strand Theatre. Each film has a focus on artists, and includes a post-film discussion with a special guest. Tickets are sold at The Strand box office directly prior to the screening.

$12/General Admission, $10/Farnsworth Members