Namioka to end

[Aaron Gerow]

The newspapers report that the Namioka Film Festival, arguable the best 
of the small film festivals in Japan, is being forced to end after 13 
years because of prudishness in government. Namioka earned a great 
reputation as a small town holding a small festival with good 
programming and good discussions with filmmakers, but this year's 
program of 22 films by Kumashiro Tatsumi (World of Geisha, Woman in 
Red) got the attention of the local education board, which then 
determined that spending public funds to show roman porno was 
inappropriate and thus pulled its financial support and refused to rent 
a hall for screenings. This despite the fact that the national 
government's Agency for Cultural Affairs has recognized Nikkatsu Roman 
Poruno's artistic merit and has funded efforts to screen it abroad. 
This year's festival will be greatly reduced in size and will become 
the last edition of this event.

Ah, more contradictions in the land of Koizumi.

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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