Film Studies Seminar with Aoyama Shinji

[Aaron Gerow]

Film Studies Seminar with Aoyama Shinji

The Japanese film director Aoyama Shinji will be visiting Yale from 
April 6 to 18, 2005 (for more on all the Aoyama events, see 
http://www.yale.edu/ycias/ceas/events.html). In addition to showing a 
number of his films, he has kindly consented to run two weekend 
workshops while he is here. The first one will be a production seminar 
for those interested in filmmaking, the second more of a 
lecture/discussion seminar focusing on Aoyama's film theory and 
criticism.

I am writing now to tell you about the film studies seminar. Aoyama has 
directed over 12 feature films, two of which have been featured in the 
main competition at Cannes (Eureka winning several prizes there) and he 
has written several prize-winning novels. He has also written a 
considerable amount of film criticism and film theory, having published 
a book of his writings, edited a book on Wim Wenders, and recently 
taught a course in film studies at the University of Tokyo, Japan's top 
university.  He has become a major intellectual, and sometimes 
polemical, force in thinking about cinema in Japan.

In a unique opportunity for the Yale community and others interested in 
film and Japan, this major international director has consented to 
conduct a weekend seminar and discuss in detail his ideas about cinema, 
his analyses of particular films and directors from America, Europe and 
Japan, and his position towards recent Japanese film. This is also a 
special occasion to learn about the different contexts through which 
cinema has been theorized in Japan.

The seminar will meet April 16 and 17. The exact format has not been 
announced, but the general structure will be as follows:

1) Saturday, April 16, 1-5pm
Hall of Graduate Studies, 217B

In the first session, Aoyama will consider a number of films by 
European and American directors, particularly those by Eastwood, 
Wenders and Costa.

2) Sunday, April 17, 1-5pm
Hall of Graduate Studies, 217B

In the second session, Aoyama will focus primarily on Japanese cinema, 
considering films by such directors as Yamanaka Sadao, Yoshida Kiju, 
and Kato Tai, as well as his own polemical position within Japanese 
film history.

Aoyama's To the Alley and Lakeside Murder Case will be shown for the 
general public (on the 16th and 17th respectively) at 7pm on the 
seminar days. To the Alley will also be followed by a symposium on the 
novelist Nakagami Kenji, the subject of To the Alley.

Registration for the seminars is required by April 15: contact Anne 
Letterman at anne.letterman at yale.edu. In the case of over-registration, 
preference will be given to Yale students and faculty. Food will be 
provided for participants. Aoyama will talk in Japanese with English 
translation provided. Those signing up should be committed to attending 
both sessions.

If you have any questions about this event, feel free to write.

Aaron Gerow
Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Film Studies Program
Yale University
53 Wall Street, Room 316
PO Box 208363
New Haven, CT 06520-8363
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6764
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu