WITCHES OF THE ORIENT

Directed by Julien Faraut
Documentary | Japanese/French | France | 100 min

Meet the former players of the Japanese women’s volleyball team. Now in their 70s, they used to be known as the ‘Witches of the Orient’ because of their seemingly supernatural powers on the courts.

From the formation of the squad in the late 1950s as a workers’ team at a textile factory, right up until their triumph at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, their memories and true magic from long ago bubble up into a heady brew where fact and fable fly hand in hand.

Q&A with Danny Leigh, Julien Faraut and Matt Alt

The Little Brown x Witches Virtual Screening Room ticket comes with an additional pre-recorded Q&A. Hosted by Danny Leigh (chief film writer at the Financial Times) in discussion with Julien Faraut (director) and Matt Alt (Writer of Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World), the conversation spans topics including Japanese culture, post-war Japan and manga/anime.

ABOUT THE PANEL:

Danny Leigh - writer/journalist 
Danny Leigh is chief film writer at the Financial Times. He has been a film journalist since the 1990s, writing for the FT and The Guardian as well as making documentaries for and appearances on BBC TV and radio. He has also written two novels and is working on a third.

Julien Faraut - director of the film 
Having worked with the French Sports Institute (INSEP) for 15 years, Julien has had access to a large and mostly unseen collection of 16mm archival footage, aiming to bridge the connections between sport, cinema and art. With a fascination for the incredible achievements of highly skilled athletes, Julien’s portfolio of work explores these unique and astonishing human beings through the medium of film. Read more.

Matt Alt (Writer of Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World)

Matt Alt is a Tokyo-based writer, translator, and reporter. He is a contributor to The New Yorker online, CNN, Wired, Slate, The Independent, Newsweek Japan, The Japan Times, and many other publications, and is the co-author of six illustrated books about Japan.

His latest book, Pure Invention,  tells the untold story of how Japan became a cultural superpower through the fantastic inventions that captured and transformed the world's imagination.