Upcoming Doc Encyclopedia

Aaron Gerow gerowaaron
Mon May 17 22:39:36 EDT 2004


It's the perpetual problem of area cinemas. With only ten entries, one 
often cannot justify separate entries for General Topics and Concepts, 
Styles Techniques and Technical Issues, Themes Issues and 
Representations, Types of Documentary and Publications (frequently only 
American or central European cinemas get to have such entries). Those 
issues all get stuffed into the general account for the nation.

But perhaps we could propose a Publications - Japan entry and cover 
many of the documentary journals in Japan; or a Production Companies 
Organizations Festivals Institutions - Japan entry (and include in that 
Prokino, Iwanami, Nichiei, YIDFF, etc.). But in both cases, we would 
have to justify the need to do this beyond the general entry.

One could try to substitute film entries for some of the director ones 
(Sanrizuka for Ogawa, Minamata for Tsuchimoto, Emperor's Naked Army for 
Hara, etc.), but one then misses out on a lot of other films in the 
process. Readers are also more likely to look under the director's name.

Area cinema entries just often tend towards the auteurist--if you're 
lucky enough to have any entries beyond the general one.

Aaron Gerow
Film Studies and East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University





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