This festival cleans house

Hoarders on A&E TV is my new guilty pleasure—and I feel somewhat bad about it. I don’t often seek entertainment from other people’s despair. But I remember they asked to be on reality TV, so I pop a popcorn bag and wait for these pack rats to uncover things like decaying pumpkins, cat colonies, a young girl knitting a red sweater.

To be fair, the young-girl-knitting “discovery” is from a Japanese film, Wool 100%, which will show at this weekend’s the Soaring Voices Film Festival. The film begins like an episode of Hoarders: Two aging sisters venture to a nearby town every day to collect discarded items. But one day, they find a young girl in their own home, a sort of textile Sisyphus, who knits a red sweater and then unravels it, only to begin again.

The film mixes live action, puppetry and animation for an eerie yet beautiful drama—the real kind of drama, not the reality-TV imitation.

Soaring Voices will feature three additional films that explore the roles of Japanese and Japanese-American women. From a Silk Cocoon, which will open the festival at 9:30 a.m., is a documentary about a Japanese couple who renounce their American citizenship after being placed in an internment camp during World War II. Shinjuku Boys documents the life of onnabes, women who live as men but don’t necessarily identify as lesbians. K-20: Legend of the Mask will close the festival with a story about a ninjalike thief in 1949 feudal Japan, if World War II didn’t occur.

There will be special appearances by classical pianist Natsuki Fukasawa, director Satsuki Ina and professors from Sacramento State. Plus, an all-festival pass is only $15; it’s cheaper than four films at the movie theater and better than sitting in pajamas watching people attempt to clean their houses.