Carving the Divine: Buddhist Sculptors of Japan tells the authentic story of the art of the Busshi, Japan’s Buddhist sculptors – those who make Butsuzo. Butsuzo (Buddhist Sculpture) is one of the most revered, celebrated, and omnipresent legacies of art, religious expression, and religious experience in Japan. The Japanese people have lived side by side with this magnificent art for more than a millennium, and through the experience of embracing this art, they confront the suffering and meaning of life.Separately, there will be a virtual Q&A with the Director Yujiro Seki on February 26 at 2:45 p.m. Students interested in participating are asked to email Professor Aleksandr Sklyar (avsklyar@colgate.edu) to request a virtual seat.About the Director, Yujiro Seki Born and raised in Japan, Yujiro SEKI discovered his passion for film-making when he was in high school. Through making his first feature film, Sokonashi Deka (The Enigmatic Detective), he became enamored with the imaginative possibilities of cinema and vowed to master the art through study in the United States. Despite the fact that starting a new life in a new country was a challenge in itself, Seki earned a BA in Film from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a short film, Sashimi Taco, for his senior honors thesis. Following his graduation, Seki moved to Los Angeles to work as a director of the video department for Intermarket Design, and as a film instructor at Montecito Fine Arts College of Design. After attaining permanent U.S. residency, Seki began studying full time in the Cinematography program at UCLA Extension. Upon graduating from that program, he embarked on the journey of making his feature documentary project, Carving the Divine: Buddhist Sculptors of Japan. Carving the Divine has become the official selection for 33 film festivals, showing a total of 22 countries, and won awards at 13 festivals worldwide, such as winning the Best Director Award of a Foreign Language Documentary at World Cinema Milan and premiering at the famous Raindance Film Festival in London.Sponsored by The Fund for the Study of the World's Religions