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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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