self introduction and question (Tamura films)

[Mark Nornes]

On Monday, June 16, 2003, at 11:16  AM, daniel gerber wrote:

> hello everybody,
>
> i have been a "silent member" of your mailing-list for a while. my 
> name is daniel gerber, i'm studying german literature and media at 
> marburg (germany) and i'd like to write my thesis on the brilliant 
> tamura masaki.
> espacially i'm interested in his early documentaries on the "war" 
> during the construction of narita airport (i guess there are five 
> movies...).
> where can i buy (or see, at least) these early movies? does anybody 
> know where they were broadcasted? nhk?
>

Welcome!

You are referring to the Sanrizuka Series, directed by Ogawa Shinsuke. 
Tamura did all of the films except Summer at Sanrizuka, which he 
co-photographed with Otsu Koshiro. He also shot most of Ogawa's films 
after that. I think he also gets a co-photography credit for the film 
about Ogawa Pro, Hare to Ke, and a co-editing credit for Ogawa Pro's 
Eiga no miyako.  I don't think the Sanrizuka Series has been broadcast 
on tv, but NHK has shown the last two, major films by Ogawa a number of 
times....very late at night!

The films are not commercially available, but maybe in the next few 
years this will change. Japan Foundation has prints of a number of 
these films. Since you are a researcher, you might be able to get the 
current copyright owner---Eiga Bigakko in Tokyo---to give you a 
screening.  The easiest way to see the films, however, would be to drop 
in the office of Yamagata Film Festival.

Markus