question regarding early archives and Japanese film

[Roger Macy]

The main account on West Coast Japanese cinema circuits of the period still seems to be The Exhibition of Films for Japanese Americans in Los Angeles During the Silent Era by Junko Ogihara, 1990 in Film History 4: pp81-87.  I seem to recall that Junko herself was able to answer a similar query on this list a few years back.  I would love to hear that more work had been done.  We are talking of California !

The literature persistently refers to 'captured Japanese films'.  But, as Markus has raised, captured from whom, when and where ?   The numerous accounts I have read on Capra's outfit just refer to the films' arriving.  Rotha, in his appendix to the 1952 (3rd edtn.) The Documentary Film, gives an account of Iris Barry (she, again) as the central figure, providing much information to him, and it is possible that a trawl of the Rotha papers might pull something in.  But given the total lack of Asian focus of either writer, and that I haven't had a sniff of Japanese films coming through New York, it hasn't seemed worth a transatlantic trip to prove another negative.  In the brief time I had at the National Archives in Washington, it didn't seem difficult to find inventories and correspondence on captured German and Italian films, but I drew a blank on the provenance of Japanese films.  They appeared very soon after Pearl Harbor, when the allies were far from capturing or liberating any Japanese-held territories.  Some may have acquired from hastily-abandoned Japanese institutions in the west, but I have seen no evidence that such organisations were propagating or widely exhibiting information films, let alone feature films. 

So does 'captured' mean 'not paid for' ?   Were some, or most of these confiscated from Americans who entered camps ?  I suppose it would matter whether the films were rented, or owned outright by their contemporary holders, as to a fair categorisation.  Impounded or looted ?

And the other U.S place to do research is Hawaii ...

Quentin, I am inferring from your posting that there was no pre-war Japanese-Australian community.  But has anyone looked at the possibility of Japanese film exhibition in South America ?

Roger


----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Quentin Turnour 
  To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
  Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 7:56 AM
  Subject: Re: question regarding early archives and Japanese film



  How established was the US West Coast Japanese cinema circuit before the War? Were prints come in via that and staying in the US - and who outside of the Japanese-American community was seeing them pre-1941 - or afterwards? 

  I remember asking a few US film archivists and historians about this some years ago, when I doing some research on extensive Greek, Italian  (and to a lesser extent Chinese ) immigrant cinema circuits that existed down here and was curious about equivalent US migrant cinema circuits. I was a bit surprised that (at least then) there didn't seem to be much of a literature on this history. I could have not been looking in the right places (this was in the early days of the Web) and wouldn't surprise me if much more work had been done since. Be curious to know. 

  Quentin Turnour, Programmer, 
  Access, Research and Development
  National Film and Sound Archive, Australia






        Mark Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu> 
        Sent by: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
        08/02/2010 02:37 PM Please respond to
              KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 


       To "KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>  
              cc Mark Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu>  
              Subject Re: question regarding early archives and Japanese film 

              

       



  Frank Capra and Ruth Benedict were watching Japanese feature films shortly after Pearl Harbor. Where did the prints come from? It's an interesting question. And as Roger indicates, the alternative universe where a powerful programmer got behind Asian film could have altered the bedrock of "international cinema" long before Rashomon. 

  Markus 

  On Feb 7, 2010, at 7:26 PM, Roger Macy wrote: 

  Dear William, 
  This is a crucial point that you have hit. 
  Iris Barry is one of a very small number of people who, if they had any Asian focus, would have radically changed the preserved landscape of film history. 
  Presumably like you, I found very little to go on at MoMA.  So, I followed the money to the Rockefeller Foundation.  The short answer is yes, its collection activities were limited to the United States and Europe, including the Soviet Union, and there was no failed rescue attempt for Japan.  But there is a slightly longer story which is likely to be told soon. 
  Is there any chance we could meet at KinemaClub X ? 
  Roger 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: ReelDrew at aol.com 
  To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
  Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 10:52 PM 
  Subject: question regarding early archives and Japanese film 

  I am right now working on the final draft of my forthcoming book, "The Last Silent Picture Show: Silent Films on American Screens in the 1930s."  Presently, I'm doing the revisions for a chapter on the archival movement and the Museum of Modern Art in the '30s. 
  Relating this to Japanese film, I point out that MOMA in the Iris Barry years (1935-1951) limited its collection of early cinema--and the programs of early films it featured--to the historical development of filmmaking in the United States, Western Europe and the Soviet Union.  What I'd like to find out from knowledgeable people here is does anyone know if my information is accurate?  Has anyone here, for example, seen any correspondence or other documents indicating that Iris Barry was planning a program on the history of Japanese cinema (and those of India and China as well) in say, 1939 but that the outbreak of WWII halted this project?  Or am I correct in my assumption that the standard view of the historical development of cinema in those days, as set forth at MOMA, completely omitted the early contributions of Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, including Japan? 
  I should point out that in the 1930s and 1940s, the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, contrary to Peter Decherney's tendentious assertions in "Hollywood and the Culture Elite," was not a national film archive and, in fact, many important areas in early American film history were neglected due to Iris Barry's international focus.  Many at the time, in fact, felt it was her preoccupation with the European art film that caused her to overlook so much of the American cinema.  Or perhaps in fairness to her, she was trying to balance America and Europe in the collection she built up.  However, what I think was clearly left out of the film history programs established by Barry at MOMA was the entire historical production of cinema in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America during the first half of the 20th century.  I am not aware that Barry made any effort in the 1930s and 1940s to obtain examples of filmmaking from those countries beyond Hollywood and Europe.  If anyone here, however, has information to the contrary, specifically, of course, with respect to Japanese cinema, I would very much like to know.  I wish my analysis to be as accurate as possible. 
    
  William M. Drew 

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