Devotion Press Release

[A.M. Nornes]

Press Release                    DEVOTION by Barbara Hammer


Contact Info:
Red Flame Films
212-645-9077

DEVOTION, a story about Ogawa Productions, is an 84 minute documentary of an
important Japanese postwar documentary collective that made significant films
of social struggle and village life.  This investigative documentary situates
the revolutionary lifestyle and films of Ogawa Productions within the
framework of the global student movement of the New Left in the mid 60s and
the emerging documentary movement in Japan.  In-depth stories from the
collective members who contributed to this unique film making process are
examined from a variety of perspectives and understandings.  OSHIMA Nagisa,
HARA Kazuo and HANEDA Sumiko, well-known film directors, present their
personal recollections of this unique group.  Memory, history, national
culture, gender, and identity all figure in the stories as the evolution,
development, and finally, disintegration, of this seminal film collective
unfold.
Director's Biography

Barbara Hammer is an internationally recognized independent filmmaker who has
made 75 films and videos in the last thirty years.  She has completed four
feature film documentaries recalling lost histories.  Nitrate Kisses (1992), O
ut of South Africa (1994), Tender Fictions (1995), and The Female Closet
(1998).  That have received international attention, television broadcast and
commercial release.  Her films have screened at: The Tokyo Metropolitan
Museum of Photography, Image Forum, the Yamagata International Documentary
Film Festivals (1995.1997), The Museum of Modern Art (New York City), Centre
Pampidou (Paris), and The Whitney Museum of American Art.
BARBARA HAMMER: DIRECTORS STATEMENT
DEVOTION, A FILM ABOUT OGAWA PRODUCTIONS

    DEVOTION is the most difficult film or video I have ever undertaken.
>From inception to completion it was two years of investigation of a
distinguished and important film collective whose members were dispersed
since the death of their leader, Ogawa Shinsuke, nine years ago.  Not only
did I have to find the members whose numbers measured in the hundreds, but
also, to negotiate preliminary meetings before I could videotape an
interview.   Some members refused to speak with me altogether, some would
only give me personal interviews but would not be taped, and, thank god, some
were very honest, personal and helpful.  I could not have made this work
without the support of my producers, assistant director, translators, and the
many wonderful and committed members of Ogawa Productions who allowed me to
tape them.

    That was just the beginning.  Then I had to edit over 70 hours of
material in Japanese, a language I do not understand.  The patience that
Yoshiko Shimada, the Assistant Director, and I nurtured during this period of
sound editing grew very thin on occasion.  Finally, the sound edit was
completed and I felt competent to complete the visual editing on my own.

    Why, you might ask, would any foreigner undertake such a project?  Sure,
I was na?e and did not expect the difficulties I would encounter. However,
the deep research that led to these surprising stories, the wonderful films
made by Ogawa Productions, and the desire to make sure history was not
written by a single point of view propelled me through the two intense years
of work.

    I believe that history affords multiple telling; that each person will
tell a different story of the same experience, that we film makers and
audience viewers must also hold all the varied meanings simultaneously.  It
isn't difficult once you begin this practice.

    I appreciate the film/video that uncovers, reveals, makes the invisible,
visible.

I made DEVOTION as a contribution to Japanese and global film history.