Sento (was Kawase)

[Abe-Nornes]

Several months ago, I posted an ambiguous question about feminism, whether
anyone could identify areas/filmmakers/films that reveal its influence,
being curious if there would be a bite. There was none. That itself says
something. I didn't have time to pursue the silence, and also wanted to
wait until an opportunity to discuss some ideas with filmmakers and critics
at Yamagata last fall. 
The discussion of Sento provides an opportunity to get back to it,
especially since this weekend I started writing a manuscript about the
subject.

I really liked what Aaron had to say about Kawase as a representative for
the conservativeness of many young filmmakers. It is useful to recall, as
Aaron did, that the turn to the self is an international trend in
nonfiction film/video. It is being thoroughly theorized here---Bill Nichols
calls it performative or reflexive, Michael Renov calls it essayistic---but
the Japanese films that fit this description are surprisingly naive in
their conceptualization and too often uncritically conservative....in other
words, the complete opposite of filmmakers in other parts of the world.
Pretty much all of the non-Japanese I know that watch recent experimental
work have been deeply disappointed on this score.

Aaron attributes this to the lack of media/film education, especially in
the art schools that are teaching production (which are stocked to the
gills with high tech gear, but pretty poor on the history and critical
studies side). I think you have to dig deeper to explain the phenomenon.
Birget's hypothesis about the apolitical nature of "independence" must be
historicized. Sento's naming decision points us in the right direction. 

At last fall's Yamagata Film Festival, there was a symposium dedicated to
documentary of the 1980s and 90s. Participants included Sento, Iizuka
Toshio (Ogawa Shinsuke's old AD), Kanai Katsu (one of the most fascinating
experimental filmmakers in Japan), and Ise Shinichi (documentary director).
The moderator, Yamane Sadao, posed an interesting question that went
something like this: 

        Something happened in the mid-1970s. We saw the peak of directors
        like Tsuchimoto with Shiranui Sea and his medical film, and Ogawa
        with Sanrizuka: Heta Village. But then Ogawa goes to Yamagata; both
        become less productive. At the same time, Hara Kazuo and Suzuki
        Shiroyasu start making their first films. It was the difference between
        an emphasis on group and an emphasis on the individual. The latter "won"
        but what exactly happened then?

This dominated the discussion, with Iizuka implicitely attacking Sento for
her apolitical turn to the self, a self disconnected from any sociality,
and Sento trying to defend herself. Kanai and Ise were left wondering where
they fit in...which is another important issue I will set aside. The
symposium closed without coming close to answering "what happened." 

The answer I think, is feminism.  

In the early 70s, the question was what to do with politics. The status of
the New Left was finally brought into high relief with the descent of the
Red Army into self-destructive torture and murder. The airport was in. Ampo
was passed. etc. etc. In retrospect, there seemed to be three choices
available. 

The first was to struggle to continue making films politically. This was
the choice of Ogawa and Tsuchimoto, and while they continued to produce
very good films (incredible films in the case of Ogawa). It was clear to
everyone that that "group" mode was no longer viable. Ogawa Productions was
down to a couple people at the time of Ogawa's death. If people couldn't
make films, they could write about them, program them, or do other things. 

The second choice was to give up filmmaking and commit oneself completely
to politics, a route few people chose but which is summed up by Adachi
Masao, filmmaker and screenwriter for Oshima and Wakamatsu. His choice was
to stop filmmaking and become a guerilla with the Red Army. He was just
captured in Lebanon last year, where he became the spokesman for the group
at their trial. 

The last choice was the turn to the self. Hara and Suzuki are special, both
for the films they've made, their subject matter and styles, but also for
where they locate themselves....always in the vicinity of Ogawa and
Tsuchimoto. However, Aaron has adequately described how this trend ended up
in uncritical self-reflection and conservatism---best represented by the
so-called self-nude---while similar treatments of subjectivity in other
parts of the world are highly politicized. 

The difference, I think, is feminism. Back in the 1970s, feminism acted as
the ground for a synthesis for many competing fields of theory, from
Marxism to semiotics to psychoanalysis. Feminist criticism, theory, and
filmmaking brought these together in a productive mix. Any treatment of
subjectivity must trace roots back to this moment, whether it has to do
with class, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, imperiality, and any
other "ities." 

While feminism became generalized in film theory and practise (at least in
the independent sphere), an analogous development never happened. This is
testiment to a deeply conservative authoritarianism within the New Left.
For example, for all of Ogawa Productions radicalism, it was a deeply
sexist organization. Feminism has been a significant force for social and
political *movement*, but in terms of critical and theoretical and artistic
intervention, that authoritarianism within the left has kept it localized
and contained. Artists who consciously use feminism in their work, Idemitsu
Mako for example, are pretty much despised and marginalized. Outside of
Idemitsu, all the women filmmakers I've met are like Sento----they are very
anxious to proclaim they are NOT feminists. 

So while filmmakers here treat the social dimensions of subjectivity and
representation as a matter of course, these young Japanese filmmakers
aggressively avoid this approach. And in the course of the 1990s, this
stance has been thoroughly imbricated by otaku subjectivity. 

I do think things are changing within the left. When I posed this
hypothesis to people like Hatano, Kawanaka, Iizuka, Nakajima and others,
they sheepishly thought there was something to this.  Nakajima and
Kawanaka. in particular. are keenly aware of developments in Euro-American
experimental film and video. And recent discussions about Ogawa Pro have
broached its sexism, and they way women were treated. 

And in the end, this does show how important education in the film and art
schools is. Certainly, that's where change will start. 

Markus           [sorry about the length]