GKIDS Films and Fathom Events Screen Pompo The Cinephile This April
North American animation specialists GKIDS Films were on a major roll prior to the pandemic, bringing beautiful animation from around the world to audiences around the US and Canada. Through their partnership with Fathom Events, they were able to bring their releases to more screens than ever before. The closing of cinemas for months on end and the subsequent cautiousness or audiences to return put things on hold for a while. However, the two resumed their collaboration last summer with a series of encore screenings of recent anime hits.
Their partnership will resume this April with screenings of the anime feature Pompo The Cinephile. The film is the debut major release of new anime studio CLAP and is written and directed by Takayuki Hirao, an anime veteran who started off as a storyboard artist and animation director whose past credits include episodes of Attack On Titan, Paranoia Agent, God Eater and Kabanari Of The Hidden Fortress. This is his second feature director gig following from 2013's Majokko Shimai no Yoyo to Nene ("Magical Sisters Yoyo and Nene"). The movie is an adaptation of the manga of the same name, written and illustrated by Shogo Sugitani.
Pompo is a talented and gutsy producer in “Nyallywood,” the movie-making capital of the world. Although she’s known for B-movies, one day Pompo tells her movie-loving but apprehensive assistant Gene that he will direct her next script: a delicate drama about an aging and tormented creative genius, starring the legendary and Brando-esque actor Martin Braddock, and a young actress seeking her first break. But when the production heads towards chaos, can Gene rise to Pompo’s challenge, and succeed as a first-time director?
Pompo the Cinephile is a rollicking, exuberant ode to the power of the movies, and the joys and heartbreak of the creative process, as a new director and his team devote their lives to the pursuit of a “masterpiece.”
