The first Japanese director to be acclaimed abroad, Akira Kurosawa (1910-98) was a true auteur and one of the world's greatest filmmakers. Bridging the historical with the contemporary and Eastern cultural values with the West, his pictures cut across genres, periods and settings, indulging equally his love of John Ford Westerns, Shakespeare, the work of French director Jean Renoir, and his native bushido code. Kurosawa exerted a profound influence on international cinema while asserting his individuality as a filmmaker, uniquely incorporating deep humanism, bawdy humor, compassion for his characters, and an appreciation for the unsettling ambiguities of life. This month's mini-festival features classics from Kurosawa's "middle period," during which he consolidated and expanded upon the thematic concerns and stylistic features developed during his tenure as a young studio contract director.