CWC Global: Japanese Paper Films

In the 1930s, several Japanese companies produced films made on paper (called kami firumu, 紙フィルム) instead of celluloid. Given the short period of production, the varying paper quality, and the devastation of WWII, very few paper film prints survive. Those that remain are too fragile to play on their original projectors, and most have not been seen in over 85 years. The Japanese Paper Film Project, which began at Bucknell University in 2019, is dedicated to preserving the surviving films. To do so, the project has gathered faculty and students to create a custom digital film scanner and bespoke software for reanimating the films. In 2023 and 2024, project members traveled to Japan and worked with museums, collectors, and film archives in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe to scan about 200 surviving film prints.

For this special screening, we present a curated collection of digitized Japanese paper films in a wide range of genres: live action documentary, abridged versions of live action Japanese and international feature films, and lots of anime. These animated films give us a peek into the origins of contemporary anime with films that celebrate samurais, rōnin, and ninjas, as well as fairytales about Shinto gods and mythological creatures.

The program includes both silent and sound paper films, with each film running between 1 and 4 minutes. For those films without a soundtrack, Duo Yumeno (made up of koto player Yoko Reikano Kimura and cellist Hikaru Tamaki) will provide live musical accompaniment that blends traditional Japanese music with Western classical influences.

The program will begin with a brief introduction by curator and project lead Eric Faden (Film/Media Studies, Bucknell University). Following the screening, Faden, Kimura, and Tamaki will join moderator Alex Lilburn (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) onstage for a discussion about the Japanese Paper Film Project.

Photo: Collection of Paper Films at Kyoto’s Toy Film Museum.