Matsukawa Yasuo

[Aaron Gerow]

I received news from the Yamagata International Documentary Film 
Festival that the documentary filmmaker Matsukawa Yasuo died on the 
11th of cancer. He was 75 years old.

Matsukawa has been featured at the YIDFF several times, including an 
extensive interview in Documentary Box:

http://www.yidff.jp/docbox/23/box23-1-1-e.html

The following is the profile from DB:

Born in 1931 in Tokyo. Graduated with a degree in Art and Art History 
from the School of Humanities and Sociology at the University of Tokyo 
in 1956. Began freelance work after leaving Shin Riken Eigasha and 
Nichiei Kagaku Eiga. Won the Grand Prix in the Art Film Category of the 
Vergamo Film Festival in Italy with The Satirical Animal Scrolls 
(1966). Has received many prizes for his films, including Izumo Kagura 
(2002), which won the number one spot on the Kinema Junpo Best Ten 
list. His most representative works including Hiroshima: Record of the 
Atomic Bomb and Uneasy Questions are still screened regularly. Worked 
on nearly 100 films. Wrote the book Making Documentaries (?Dokyumentari 
o tsukuru?) and has done work in book design and illustration.

What has been so shocking for everyone at the YIDFF is that 
Matsukawa-san came to the YIDFF Documentary Dream show screening at the 
Athenee Francais on the 7th, when his Kumano kodo (his new work) and 
Fuanna shitsumon were screened. He was a little weak, but he answered 
questions from the audience about his films. It is proof of his 
dedication to cinema that even up to the end he worked to show his 
films and connect with his audience.

Matsukawa is also featured in the Dokyumentari eiga wa kataru: Sakka 
intabyu no kiseki, which was published last month.

He will be missed.

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

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

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