question regarding early archives and Japanese film

[Quentin Turnour]

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
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KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu


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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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