Sakuragraph small-format films (J + E)

[Mark Nornes]

On Jun 1, 2004, at 5:29 AM, Roland Domenig wrote:

>> What's the title of a reputable small-format-film-specialty magazine
>> or journal?

There were a few more magazines than the ones Roland mentions:

  ?????? / ??????????? [?] circa 1930

  ?????? / ??????????? [?] circa 1930

  ???? / ???????? [?] 1929

If I remember correctly, the latter two are the more substantial 
magazines.

There are also a number of books. Of these, the Nishimura book is 
probably the best (of the ones I've actually looked at. Books and 
journals about "kyoiku eiga" are also filled with this stuff.

  ????? / by Iwao Mori [???] ; ????,???? ??
?? : ??????, 1931.6

  ???? / ???? ?
?? : ????, 1941.2

  ??????? / ?????,??? ?
?? : ???, 1932.1

  ??????? / ?????,??? ?
?? : ???, 1930.4

  ??????? / ???? ?
?? : ???, 1931.10

  ?????????? / ???? ?
?? : ???, 1930.10

  ???? : ????? / ???? ?
?? : ????, 1941.12

There are basically a number of ways that the small format films were 
being used before the war. There were libraries held by private 
distributors or schools/universities. Some of these were domestically 
produced (by companies like Yokohama Cinema) and others that were 
bought whole from Europe or America. Then there were small-format 
feature films that you could purchase, probably the predecessor of the 
video tape.

At the same time, the cameras and projectors were for sale. They were 
expensive, so they were basically a plaything for the wealthy. These 
journals were mostly oriented toward them. The films they shot were 
either home movies or attempts at amateur fiction or experimental 
films. Throughout the 1930s, and probably to the present-day, there 
were competitions for these people. In the 1930s, the competitions were 
part of a global phenomenon, and you'll find articles and announcements 
in the magazines about who won an award somewhere in the world.

The small-gauge formats were appropriated by Prokino for the creation 
and projection of social movement films. There is a lot of overlap with 
the previous group. In their competitions, the amateur filmmakers often 
invited Prokino types to be jury members. There are many articles on 
small-gauge filmmaking in the Prokino journals and books (by the way, 
I'll be putting many of them online in a few weeks; keep your eye out).

I suspect that because of Prokino's visibility and publication 
activities, and partly because they were part of the movie fan base, 
mainstream publications published a lot about the "baby cinema" boom. 
In the late 1920s and 1930s, maybe longer, Kinema Junpo had a regular 
column about it.

Finally, Nada has a series of nice articles in Fs about the history of 
small gauge filmmaking. (See my doc book for the bibliographic 
references).

What I'd like to know is whether these films have been collected and 
preserved anywhere. This is an important part of the experimental film 
history (one reads about amateur city symphonies!). The only ones I'm 
aware of are the Prokino films, but they are obviously in a different 
league.

Markus

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 17565 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/private/kinejapan/attachments/20040601/248bf488/attachment.bin