Julia Morizawa’s “Dragonfly” Debuts at 2023 LA Asian Pacific Film Festival

Julia Morizawa’s “Dragonfly” Debuts at 2023 LA Asian Pacific Film Festival

April 22nd, 2023

Jerry Beck

Writer/producer/actor Julia Morizawa’s compelling animated short film Dragonfly will make its Los Angeles Premiere at the 39th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on Sunday, May 7th at 8PM, at the Japanese American National Museum. The film will be screened in the “Lost and Found” animation program, depicting discarded dreams, forgotten memories, missing pieces and where it can be put 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 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.

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 her grandparents, 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. Like many adults she meets today, she had never heard of it before. In addition to being a 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.

Julia Morizawa is a writer/producer/actor with extensive experience in film, television, theatre and new media. Produced writing credits include the improvised feature film “JesusCat (or How I Accidentally Joined a Cult),” which was 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,” available worldwide on most podcast apps. As an actor, career highlights include: “Judas Kiss” (feature film), “Scandal” (TV), “SEAL Team” (TV), “Masha No Home” (stage), “Without Annette” (stage), “Galactic Galaxy” (new media), “Star Trek: Odyssey” (new media), and “The Bright Sessions” (fiction podcast).

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 and the Sound Design by Giorgia Garcia-Moreno. The voice talent includes: Morizawa, Erika Ishii, Miya Kodama, and Thomas Isao Morinaka.

Dragonfly will screen on Sunday, May 7th at 8PM, at the Japanese American National Museum, 100 North Central Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Tickets can be purchased at: 2023 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Ticketing Site

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.