Signal Otter Films is screening a 2025 restoration of the 1974 Isao Fujisawa film Bye Bye Love at Mr. Roboto Project on September 12. More details, from their Instagram post announcing the first Pittsburgh-area screening of Bye Bye Love:
In partnership with Kani Releasing, Signal Otter Films presents this landmark of Japanese queer cinema and the only feature film from Isao Fujisawa!Tickets are available online. The Mr. Roboto Project is located at 5106 Penn Ave. in Bloomfield (map).
Doors at 7. Show at 8 with a runtime of 85 minutes. Snacks and drinks provided. Masking highly recommended. Suggested donation $12 or pay what you can.
Lost and nihilistic drifter Utamaro chances upon Giko, a female-presenting shoplifter who immediately catches his eye. One thing leads to another and the couple soon find themselves on the lam for murder. This provides for a delightful pretext to explore notions of societal malaise, free love and gender fluidity in a rapidly evolving 1970s Japan, as both Utamaro and Giko begin to know each other on the road by way of a variety of encounters, alternating between surrealistic, psychedelic and sexual.
The sole feature film directed by Isao Fujisawa, who learned his craft on New Wave classics such as Woman in the Dunes (1964) and the Face of Another (1966), Bye Bye Love is a deeply personal reckoning with sexual identity. Bridging the distance between Pierrot le Fou (1965), Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) with an impeccable sense of style, splashes of Godardian color as well as strong anti-imperialist and existentialist themes, this iconic jishu eiga (self-produced film) was long-thought lost until the negatives were found in 2018 and restored for screenings – facilitated by director and programmer Akihiro Suzuki. With a runtime of 85 minutes, a new landmark in the history of Japanese queer cinema, this is the first screening of Bye Bye Love in Pittsburgh!
The Mr. Roboto Project is a cooperatively-owned, volunteer-run all-ages sober show space and art gallery located in Pittsburgh, PA. Our aim is to create a comfortable and open safe space for people to experience a true DIY (do-it-yourself) community.
Roboto identifies as a "safer space," meaning racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or any other types of oppressive language are considered inappropriate and are not tolerated. Roboto is meant to be a safe, respectful, welcoming space for everyone. In order to host younger people and people in recovery, we are also a sober space, forbidding the consumption of alcohol or drugs inside the space.