The Chaplin Society of Japan will host the 2nd Kyoto Chaplin Conference from 24-25 March, 2006 and the 1st Kyoto Silent Film Festival from 24 March to 1 April, 2007.

The main theme of the conference - and a featured section of the festival - will be "Chaplin and War". Chaplin felt himself engaged not only in the First World War of 1914-18 and the Second World of 1939-45, but also in the Cold War of the 1950s. The relevance of his comic reflections upon a tragic world loses none of its force with time: THE GREAT DICTATOR attracted fresh attention in the new century and the era of the Iraq war. The conference will present new information and materials for the understanding of Chaplin’s relationship with war.

The festival will also feature an exhibition of more than one hundred set designs for MODERN TIMES, THE GREAT DICTATOR and MONSIEUR VERDOUX, drawn from the collection of David Robinson, and shown in public for the first time.

The 2nd Chaplin Conference promises much new information for even the most knowledgeable Chaplin experts. We are actively soliciting papers which emphasize the theme of Chaplin and War, but we also welcome papers on any aspect of Chaplin’s life and work. Proposals, with a brief outline of the paper, should be submitted by 15 February 2007.

We are planning to screen the restored version of SHOULDER ARMS accompanied by the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, along with films about war by other artists, including King Vidor's masterpiece, THE BIG PARADE (restored version) and Japanese war documentaries. The programme will include a newly discovered fragment of film of the infant Chaplin’s comic inspiration, the Spanish clown Marceline. The principal retrospectives are dedicated to the director D.W.Griffith, the actor Sessue Hayakawa, and Japanese silent film comedians

Directors; Ono Hiroyuki`and David Robinson

Contact Information
Ono Hiroyuki
The Chaplin Society of Japan
Tel/Fax +81-(0)75-755-6327
info@chaplinjapan.com