Organized by the Chicago Japan Film Collective, this special in-person conversation with Ed Godziszewski and Steve Ryfle, writers of Ishiro Honda: Memoirs of a Film Director, talks about the life and career of Japanese director Ishiro Honda, focusing on his films, war experiences, and friendship with Akira Kurosawa. Over a span of 46 feature films, Honda became a pioneer of the modern disaster genre and Japan's most internationally successful director before Hayao Miyazaki.

Ed Godziszewski is editor and publisher of Japanese Giants magazine. He is the author of a Godzilla film encyclopedia and has written for Fangoria and other publications. 

Steve Ryfle has contributed film journalism and criticism to the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Cineaste, Virginia Quarterly Review, POV, and other publications. He is the author of a book on the history of the Godzilla film series.