Ogawa / Hammer

[Mark Nornes]

On Friday, February 8, 2002, at 01:09  PM, M Arnold wrote:

> "Paruchizan zenshi" (1969), produced by Ogawa Pro but directed by 
> Tsuchimoto

> while most of the Ogawa films I've seen take the side of the farmers or 
> students and show violence mostly on the side of the police, this film 
> showed the students' half of the action as well; practicing marches and 
> "attack" drills, making Molotov cocktails out of coke bottles, and 
> confronting the police.  I don't know how intentional this was but I 
> came out wondering, "what in the world were those people thinking?"

As you saw the efficacy and ethics of violence were very much on the 
mind of Ogawa and Tsuchimoto about this time (much of Summer in 
Sanrizuka is a discourse on violence----what do you do in the face of 
police violence and the willingness of students to meet the police force 
with their own violence? Tsuchimoto puts himself in a curious position 
here. One the one hand, he offers the recipe for molotov cocktails! On 
the other, the film criticizes the students idealism and talk of 
solidarity with the masses by cross cutting with quiet Kyoto streets 
where the masses are clearly disengaged from their struggle.

> Most of the sound in the Sanrizuka films is unsynchronized with the 
> visuals.  Is there any practical reason for this?

At the time, sychronized sound was very expensive, and none of these 
guys could afford it. You had to have an expensive camera and sound 
deck. So the editors became pretty good at lining up the image and sound 
at the editing stage, but as a shot goes on (and you were seeing many 
long shots in those films) they inevitably go out of synch. I sense that 
the lack of synch sound is part of an aesthetic of roughness, a kind of 
politicized low-tech. However, it's clear that they deeply desired synch 
and Ogawa in particular spent precious money on getting the gear, 
precious donated cash. As you saw in Devotion, money is a huge issue in 
the legasy of Ogawa Pro.

> Wakamatsu Koji and Adachi Masao...debated the point of whether or not 
> film directors are "emperors,"

Both Sato Makoto and Ann Hui have very interesting things to say on this 
point in the upcoming roundtable in Documentary Box, as mentioned by 
Sarah.

> Adachi seemed a little perplexed by Hammer's documentary.  I don't 
> think he felt it was an accurate picture of the Ogawa group and their 
> activities.  He said that the film cut the interviewees apart from each 
> other and stuck them back together like an assorted sashimi plate.  He 
> reminded the audience a couple of times that Barbara Hammer comes from 
> a "lesbian feministo" point of view and that strongly affected the 
> film.  He repeated this comment about the Hammer's "lez-feminist" 
> orientation at the end.  I think the word he used to describe it was 
> "bukimi" (eerie, weird).

I think this shows that the former Ogawa Pro members understand the 
complicated sexual politics of Ogawa Pro than Adachi does. Without 
knowing exactly what he said, I suspect that he was taking a position 
similar to Ogawa himself.

> One thing I wonder is why she wasn't able to interview Tamura Masaki 
> for the film.

This is a long story. In such a unique organization, it's hard to count 
numbers but they suspect there were upwards of 150-175 members over the 
years. Hammer contacted everyone she could find, and most of them 
declined to be interviewed. Ultimately, the reason a person decided to 
cooperate or not reflected (I think) the degree to which they've dealt 
with their past relationship to Ogawa and to their political idealism. 
You can't underestimate what a powerful experience being around Ogawa 
and Ogawa Pro was.

> "Devotion" had a 2000 date on it.  Has it been screened in many places 
> outside of Japan?  While I'm at it, what is the availability for Ogawa 
> films outside of Japan?  What is available in America?

Athenee Francais, Eurospace and Eiga Bigakko bought the Ogawa library 
and are the sole distributors. They frequently show them in Japan, 
especially in Japan. The films are regularly screened for students of 
Eiga Bigakko. They are planning on a video/DVD release sometime in the 
future, but these people are committed to doing it right. That means, in 
many cases, new prints. However, because of the way the films were 
edited and printed there are few labs in Japan that can handle the 
films. For a couple of the earlier films, they are having to discuss 
pulling out mothballed equipment and bringing in retired lab workers 
that know how to run the stuff!  So don't count on this happening very 
soon. I've tried to convince them to release them region free with subs.

For any distributors out there, there is a good opportunity here. These 
people want to see the films shown and distributed outside of Japan; 
they bought the rights because of the historical importance of the 
films, and their pedagogical value. (I suspect it was yet another way 
for former supporters to continue supporting the long-gone collective 
and its vision.) In other words, they would love to see the films 
distributed, and have said to me that they aren't so concerned about 
making money off any agreement. I approached a couple distributors in 
the US, but nothing happened.

Too bad, but it's hardly too late.

Markus







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