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NEWSLETTER: October 2007 Thank you for your interest in our in-progress documentary about Yayoi Kusama. We are pleased to report that 2007 has been a very productive year. In January we received a generous grant from the Peter Norton Family Foundation. In February and September we traveled to Japan and in May and July we traveled to New York. During those trips 20 new interviews were recorded with curators, artists, scholars and most importantly Ms. Kusama herself.  Meeting Ms. Kusama was the highpoint of the year! Director Heather Lenz with Ms. Yayoi Kusama. Photo by Shinpei Takeda. © Tokyo Lee Productions, Inc. In addition to filming at the Yayoi Kusama Studio in Tokyo we also traveled to Kanazawa, Naoshima, and Matsumoto City to film interviews and shoot b-roll.  Director Heather Lenz protects translator and cinematographer Shinpei Takeda from rain while he films b-roll of the castle in Matsumoto City Photo by Dr. Akiko Agishi. © Dr. Agishi Using the footage we shot in Japan in February we completed a short five-minute trailer of our in-progress documentary for use in our grant applications. In July we were pleased to be invited to screen it at the Japan Society in New York as part of the “Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film.” The filmmakers would like to extend a special thanks to Dr. Akiko Agishi and the staff of The Aurora Foundation and her Tokyo production company, CEI for organizing our February trip to Japan.  Director Heather Lenz (in red) with Dr. Akiko Agishi (in gold kimono) president of The Aurora Foundation, an organization created by Dr. Agishi. In 2006 Lenz was awarded the Aurora Challenge Grant for a dream project involving travel to Japan. Photo courtesy of The Aurora Foundation. © The Aurora Foundation. The filmmakers would also like to express their deepest gratitude for The Aurora Foundation, The Japan-US Friendship Commission, The Peter Norton Family Foundation, The Roy W. Dean Film Grant, and Stuart Spence and Judith E. Vida, MD supporting our filmmaking this year. Additional tax-deductible donations are still being sought. Quick tax-deductible donations can be made directly from our website through the Film Arts Foundation. FAF currently has our project listed under “P” as “Polka Dot Princess, The.” The filmmakers can be contacted by email at: info@kusamadocumentary.com The filmmakers can also be contacted individually: Karen Johnson: Producer: karen@kusamadocumentary.com Heather Lenz: Director / Producer: heather@kusamadocumentary.com
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