Kaya Press celebrated legendary Japanese filmmaker Kaneto Shindo on January 26th with a screening of the beautiful and heart-breaking Naked Island, followed by a Q&A with actor Benicio Del Toro and Jiro Shindo, the director’s son — moderated by USC Political Science Professor Stanley Rosen. Both Del Toro and Jiro Shindo remarked on Kaneto Shindo’s vision of creating a film with no dialogue, and also shared stories of Del Toro’s trip to visit the island where the film was shot in Japan. Some 400 people from the University of Southern California community and beyond were in attendance. Advance copies of Life is Work: The Art of Directing, Screenwriting, and Living Life Without Regrets, written by Kaneto Shindo himself, nearly sold out. Life is Work will be published by Kaya in Fall 2013, part of an ongoing series on Japanese auteurs.

See video highlights of the event here.

See more photographs of the event here.