[KineJapan] Scott Nygren

[Markus Nornes]

Thanks Aaron. I learned about his passing in the middle of the night when
Corey Creekmur posted a notice on Facebook. There's something unsettling
about learning this kind of thing through social media; however, Creekmur
added the famous frame of Hara Setsuko pouring her tears into her hands. I
think Scott would have appreciated that.

Scott made an important and lasting contribution to the formation of
Japanese film studies as an academic discipline in the 1980s. He was right
there in the mix, bringing a newly forged theoretical commitment to the
field and constantly testing provocative and ambitious ideas in lectures,
conference talks and a string of important articles.

I was a graduate student at USC when I first met him. USC was ridiculously
competitive at the time, starting with its lopsided funding scheme (the
less you fought the more you paid)--something that leeched into the culture
of the grad seminars. It was a bad model for functioning in the world,
especially when there were none of today's professionalizing activities
like mock conference presentations and such. So the first time I met Scott
was also the first time I gave a paper at a conference. It was in Hawai'i
at the festival's conference, maybe in 1990 or so, and thanks to the
free-for-alls of my seminars I was pretty tone deaf about gauging
criticism. After my presentation was over, Scott came up to me with a
series of further questions, was incredibly gracious and wonderfully
affirming, and then--in his typically genial way--said something like, "You
know, you really don't need to be so strident regarding the people who came
before you." I was taken aback, and it took me some years to really
understand what he was talking about. It was my first introduction to
honest to god collegiality, and an example I've taken to heart over the
years.

Scott actually had a regrettably short battle with his leukemia. He
discovered it shortly after a trip to China last summer, and I sensed an
excitement with that trip that probably would have led to some interesting
articles on Chinese language cinema. Instead, as he went through rounds of
chemo and found himself cooped up in super-clean hospital rooms, he wrote a
stunning series of mini-essays about life, lines, and lineages in Facebook.
They were fascinating and I urge you to read through them in his memory.

Markus


On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 4:50 PM, Gerow Aaron <aaron.gerow at yale.edu> wrote:

> Some of you may have heard the news via other means, but the family of
> Scott Nygren has announced his passing after a long battle with cancer.
> Scott was a professor at the University of Florida and a central figure in
> film studies with a particular interest in Japanese cinema. His book, Time
> Frames: Japanese Cinema and the Unfolding of History (University of
> Minnesota Press, 2007), is his most famous contribution in our field,
> although he also penned many other important articles about the film and
> culture of Japan. His wife, Maureen Turim, also a professor at Florida, is
> the author of The Films of Oshima: Images of a Japanese Iconoclast(Berkeley: University of California Press), and the two of them were
> together an important force in the development of academic studies of
> Japanese film. I personally received much encouragement and inspiration
> from Scott and Maureen and deeply mourn his passing. My condolences go out
> to Maureen and the rest of their family.
>
> I am sure many of you can add to this testimonial.
>
> Aaron Gerow
> Professor
> Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
> Yale University
> 320 York Street, Room 311
> PO Box 208236
> New Haven, CT 06520-8236
> USA
> Phone: 1-203-432-7082
> Fax: 1-203-432-6729
> e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
> website: www.aarongerow.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>


-- 
*Markus Nornes*
Chair, Department of Screen Arts and Cultures
Professor of Asian Cinema, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
Professor, School of Art & Design

*Department of Screen Arts and Cultures*
*6348 North Quad*
*105 S. State Street*
*Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285*
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