Writer/producer/actor Julia Morizawa’s animated short film Dragonfly will premiere at the 39th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on Sunday, May 7 at 8 p.m., at the Japanese American National Museum. The film will be screened in the “Lost and Found” animation program, described as “Discarded dreams. Forgotten memories. Missing pieces. These animated films will be where we put it all back together again.”
Dragonfly tells the story of a young girl who learns of her mother’s survival of the Tokyo Firebombing on March 9-10, 1945 through the eyes of her brother’s spirit. The film opens in Komoro, Japan, 1956, where 10-year-old Sumiko chases a red dragonfly through her family’s farm while her mother, Yoshiko, watches from a distance. Flashback to Tokyo, 1945: Yoshiko, her husband, Susumu, and their baby boy, Kiyoshi, are forced to evacuate their home when hundreds of B-29 bombers drop incendiary bombs on the city, erupting into a massive fire.
The story is inspired by the little-known lives of Morizawa’s maternal grandparents. While researching her family heritage, Morizawa interviewed her mother, Sumiko, and was offered very little information about Yoshiko and Susumu’s life during WWII, except that they were living in Tokyo but a fire forced them back to the family farm in Komoro. It wasn’t until Morizawa began researching fires in Tokyo in the 1940s that she learned about the firebombing and the immensity of the tragedy. In addition to being an homage to the grandparents she never met, Morizawa’s intention with Dragonfly is to raise awareness about this event in history before it, and the people who were lost, are entirely forgotten.
The script was awarded Best Short Screenplay by Scriptation Showcase and Screenwriting Master in 2019, and was a semifinalist or quarterfinalist in several other competitions including the Austin Film Festival, Slamdance and WeScreenplay Diverse Voices.
Dragonfly is written and produced by Morizawa, with executive producers Brian Sturges, James Babbin, John Titchenal, Lucas A. Ferrara, Derek Kolterman and Christopher Luk. Maria Marta Linero served as the animation director with Eva Benitez as lead animator. The music is composed by Aiko Fukushima with sound design by Giorgia Garcia-Moreno. The voice talent includes: Morizawa, Erika Ishii, Miya Kodama and Thomas Isao Morinaka.
Morizawa’s produced writing credits include the improvised feature film JesusCat (or How I Accidentally Joined a Cult), awarded Best Comedy Feature at the Asians on Film Festival in 2014 and the Movie Heroes Rising Star Award at the Action On Film Festival in 2013; the short film Sin & Lyle, which earned her a Best Female Filmmaker nomination at the Action On Film Festival in 2007; the play Twenty-Two, which premiered in Los Angeles in 2010; and the audio drama American Comedy Horror Story: Orphanage. As an actor, she has appeared in feature film (Judas Kiss), TV series (Scandal, SEAL Team), stage works (Masha No Home, Without Annette), web series (Galactic Galaxy, Star Trek: Odyssey) and fiction podcast The Bright Sessions.
LAAPFF will feature an animated shorts program as well as the U.S. premiere of Philippines-produced 2020 animated comedy feature You Animal! (Hayop Ka!) by Avid Liongoren. More information and ticketing available online. The short film lineup includes:
Lost and Found
- Echo by Sang Joon Kim
- Colorville by Ushmey Chakraborty, Wyatt Hall
- The Sprayer by Farnoosh Abedi
- Meihouwang by Justin Ni
- Well Wishes My Love, Your Love by Gabriel Gabriel Garble
- Marionettes (and the Virtue of a Lotus Flower) by Prajdnik Awasthi
- Orion by Kyung Na Park
- Dragonfly by Julia Morizawa
- Stella by Steve Nguyen
