Booking Japanese films in 35mm

[Mark Nornes]

Dear Matthew,

It's not exactly cheap, but there is a one-stop solution: The Japan 
Foundation.

They have a very large collection of subtitled films, on both 16mm and 
35mm. They are just fine to work with with one exception. They won't 
show you their list.  Over the years, there's been discussion on 
KineJapan about creating an informal list so people have some sense for 
the contours.  Lacking that list, you simply give them a wish list and 
they tell you what they've got.  Then they give you the contact for the 
rights holder, and once you clear that they'll ship the print to you.

In general, the prices are reasonable. You just have to plan to pay 
more for shipping, and the extra step for the rights.

At Michigan, we still show film on film. We can do this only because 
the Japan Foundation makes it relatively easy.

Hope that helps.

Markus





On Monday, February 2, 2004, at 10:54  PM, bernst_m at bellsouth.net wrote:

> I may have asked this last year and if so, apologies.
>
> I find it virtually impossible to find classic or recent Japanese film
> titles available in 35mm
> to show on my college campus.  Between distributor disinterest, lack of
> prints, difficulties of
> locating rights holders, it's a lot of work.
>
> Can anyone suggest any websites / clearing houses or specialty 
> distributors
> that facilitate this process?
>
> I'm looking to program three or so films, perhaps on one of the 
> following
> themes:
>
> the 150th anniversary of US-Japan relations (perhaps one from different
> periods--Meiji, Edo, Showa)
> documentaries
> japanese traditional stories or myths
> traditional japanese arts (tea ceremony, martial arts, kabuki, etc.)
> animation
>
> But I'm not tied to these themes at all.
>
> Any information / advice would be most, most appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Matthew Bernstein
>