The award-winning documentary, SUMO EAST AND WEST, which was funded by the Japan-US Friendship Commission and the Japan Foundation and screened in festivals all over the US, including a number of prominent Asian American festivals, and won FIRST PRIZE at the Director's View Film Festival will have its US Broadcast Premiere on PBS.

Here's what the Austin Chronicle had to say about SUMO EAST AND WEST:

"Husband-and-wife team Ferne Pearlstein and Robert Edwards ... enter the world of sumo to investigate how international participation -- particularly by Hawaiians -- is changing the sport....the film blends interviews, competition footage, and fascinating archival material, such as a sumo match in a U.S. internment camp during World War II. The result is an engrossing exploration on the meaning of tradition and the inevitability of change. Behind the camera, Pearlstein managed to ... capture the elegance at the heart of the game. Under her direction, every belly-slap and thousand-pound tumble becomes a moment of beauty and grace."

SUMO EAST AND WEST will have its Broadcast Premiere on PBS's Independent Lens Series on Tuesday, June 8th at midnight in NY.

(Please be sure to check local listings, times and dates may vary widely from city to city, especially in June, PBS Pledge Month, and July)

Visit this website to find your city and broadcast time: http://www.pbs.org/tvschedules/tvschedules_localize.html

Visit our PBS trailer:
http://www.itvs.org/search/preview.htm?showID=825

And for more information, including purchases, please visit our website:
www.sumoeastandwest.com

See what other critics had to say about “SUMO EAST AND WEST”

"Sure to please...Filmmakers Ferne Pearlstein and Robert Edwards display considerable sensitivity to the sport's near-holy status in Nippon culture, and are ideally positioned as Yank cineastes to connect with those outsiders who are transforming the sport by their very presence....Pearlstein's camera, granted unprecedented access in Japan, records the brutal rituals endured by rookies designed to test their physical and mental mettle for the intense competitions...brings the sport and personalities vividly alive. Variety

"A piercing look inside sumo's legacy." Richard von Busack, Metroactive

"A stirring, in-depth look at this often closed world. This moving film is not a movie just for hardcore sumo fans....can make you fall in love with sumo." ADCC News

“Beautifully shot on 16mm by Pearlstein, SUMO EAST AND WEST is a poignant portrait of a culture trying to hold on to something sacred at all costs. Japan has long been the cultural trendsetter of the East, and Pearlstein digs deep to give the viewer a comprehensive look at the changes affecting not just the ancient sport of sumo but Japan as a whole.” Mary Kerr, Programming Director, SilverDocs: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival