Image Forum

[Aaron Gerow]

Ted Mills asked,

>Can anyone provide me with some info on Tokyo's Image Forum?  Are they
>linked with any film schools or underground scene and what is their
>relationship like with other countries' short experimental cinema?

Image Forum is basically the institutional center for experimental film 
in Japan (though there are other groups around).  It evolved out of 
Terayama Shuji's Cinematheque and is now run by the filmmaker Kawanaka 
Nobuhiro and Tomiyama Katsue.  Their main activities have been: the 
annual Image Forum Festival (the main showcase for experimental film in 
Asia); the Cinematheque (which shows programs of domestic and foreign 
experimental films every week); the Image Forum Fuzoku Eizo Kenkyujo (the 
main, non-university affiliated experimental film school in Japan); 
programming (introducing new and old Japanese work especially for foreign 
festivals); film and video distribution (IF handles many of the 
experimental work shown at their Festival, the experimental work of 
Terayama Shuji and Oki Hiroyuki, as well as much foreign work (for Japan) 
such as the films of Barbara Hammer, Sadie Benning, Brothers Quay, 
Aleksandr Sokurov, Kenneth Anger, etc.); etc.  Their publishing arm, 
Daguerreo Press, used to publish the monthly _Image Forum_ magazine until 
it stopped publication a couple of years ago.  Now they concentrate 
mostly on books.

If you have a Japanese-capable browser, you can check out their home page 
at:

    http://www.imageforum.co.jp/

Beyond having their own film school, Image Forum does have informal links 
to most of the universities that teach experimental film in Japan (Tama 
Univ. of Art; Kyoto Univ. of Art and Design; etc.), if only because many 
of the teachers there also teach occasionally at Image Forum and many of 
the students enter their work in the IF Festival contest (the primary 
contest for experimental work in Japan--Pia tends to be more narrative).

It's hard to call Image Forum "underground" anymore given how established 
it is.  The IFF is sponsored by Kirin and other major corporate sponsors. 
 The festival has also been criticized by other experimental film groups 
(Tokyo View, etc.) for lacking originality and creative force.  But IF 
does still do audacious things like show foreign work without clearing it 
through customs or Eirin.

Image Forum, as the main introducer of Japanese work abroad, has 
connections with most of the major exprimental film festivals 
(Oberhausen, etc.) and institutions.  Recently, it has put a lot of 
effort into establishing connections in Asia, allowing Asian entries in 
the IFF contest and packaging the IFF for tours of Asian cities.

For more info, just write to Image Forum itself.

Aaron Gerow
Associate Professor
International Student Center
Yokohama National University
79-1 Tokiwadai
Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501
JAPAN
Phone: 81-45-339-3170
Fax: 81-45-339-3171