Launched in 2025, the Backstreet Cinema Series is a year-round program created to spotlight films beyond conventional boundaries of release year, genre, or scale. Like wandering into a narrow street just off the main road, these works invite audiences into intimate corners of Japan—its landscapes, its people, and its unspoken memories.

Through this series, CJFC curates films that linger: stories that feel lived-in, moments that resonate long after the screen goes dark, and images that evoke nostalgia, tenderness, and discovery. Backstreet Cinema is a space for slowing down, looking closer, and encountering Japan through cinema that might otherwise be overlooked.