From amnornes at umich.edu Mon Mar 23 02:33:34 2015 From: amnornes at umich.edu (Markus Nornes) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 15:33:34 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Yamaguchi vs. Hara Message-ID: I programmed the Japan Society of New York's current film series, which commemorates the 70th anniversary of WWII. It contrasts the wartime work of Hara Setsuko and Yamaguchi Toshiko, as well as their postwar relationship to their wartime activities. If you are in New York, please check it out. http://www.japansociety.org/page/programs/film/globus-film-series-2015-the-most-beautiful I couldn't make it, but they asked for a video introduction. It's on their site, the best I could do with an afternoon and an iPad. Thankfully, there will be great introductions by Darrell Davis and Ian Buruma. And Yomota Inuhiko will do a lecture about Yamaguchi; I saw this at Uplink a couple months ago, and it's very fascinating. There have been a couple great write-ups. Nick Pinkerton came up with an amazing headline, "Pretty Hurts": http://artforum.com/film/id=50948 And Mike Hale from the Times has an excellent piece that concentrates on Yamaguchi: http://nyti.ms/1CDI1nw One of the spectators dropped me a line. He has a quite amazing website on Yamaguchi that is reprinting all sorts of things. Fascinating stuff. You can get lost in there for a considerable time! www.yoshikoyamaguchi.blogspot.com Markus -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From macyroger at yahoo.co.uk Tue Mar 24 15:51:35 2015 From: macyroger at yahoo.co.uk (Roger Macy) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 19:51:35 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [KineJapan] Yamaguchi vs. Hara In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <372251866.1035068.1427226695389.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> Thanks Markusfor this.? You?re certainly right aboutthe fascinating blog.? I?m nothing likethrough with it.? Does ?one of myspectators? have a name ?? He certainlydeserves an author/translator credit.I was particularlyinterested to see that you had secured the Itami version of Atarashikitsuchi of which I have only seen brief clips.? In fact, I was only told last month at apresentation at SOAS that the Itami version had been withdrawn from circulationby the Kawakita Foundation.? So well done- I wish I had known earlier.? I verymuch hope the program will travel.I am pleasedthat the blog eventually starts addressing Yamaguchi?s singing voice.?? Yamaguchi - in particular as Li Xanglan -was a voice phenomenon if anything at all.?I only spotted one word about that elsewhere in the links.I recommendanyone who can to go and listen to Markus' program.?Is her voice ?tremulous? or ?a voicethat hits every note in the middle, without a hint of vibrato ?.? It can?t be both (although I just slightly overstate it).best,Roger From: Markus Nornes To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum Sent: Monday, 23 March 2015, 6:33 Subject: [KineJapan] Yamaguchi vs. Hara I programmed the Japan Society of New York's current film series, which commemorates the 70th anniversary of WWII. It contrasts the wartime work of Hara Setsuko and Yamaguchi Toshiko, as well as their postwar relationship to their wartime activities. If you are in New York, please check it out.? http://www.japansociety.org/page/programs/film/globus-film-series-2015-the-most-beautiful I couldn't make it, but they asked for a video introduction. It's on their site, the best I could do with an afternoon and an iPad.? Thankfully, there will be great introductions by Darrell Davis and Ian Buruma. And Yomota Inuhiko will do a lecture about Yamaguchi; I saw this at Uplink a couple months ago, and it's very fascinating.? There have been a couple great write-ups. Nick Pinkerton came up with an amazing headline, "Pretty Hurts":? http://artforum.com/film/id=50948 And Mike Hale from the Times has an excellent piece that concentrates on Yamaguchi:? http://nyti.ms/1CDI1nw One of the spectators dropped me a line. He has a quite amazing website on Yamaguchi that is reprinting all sorts of things. Fascinating stuff. You can get lost in there for a considerable time! www.yoshikoyamaguchi.blogspot.com Markus _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From amnornes at umich.edu Tue Mar 24 19:17:55 2015 From: amnornes at umich.edu (Markus Nornes) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 08:17:55 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Yamaguchi vs. Hara In-Reply-To: <372251866.1035068.1427226695389.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> References: <372251866.1035068.1427226695389.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Sorry about that. I really should have included the website author's name. It's John Shubert, and he is a structural engineer. I wonder if he's on KineJapan??? Markus On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 4:51 AM, Roger Macy wrote: > Thanks Markus for this. You?re certainly right about the fascinating > blog. I?m nothing like through with it. Does ?one of my spectators? > have a name ? He certainly deserves an author/translator credit. > I was particularly interested to see that you had secured the Itami > version of *Atarashiki tsuchi* of which I have only seen brief clips. In > fact, I was only told last month at a presentation at SOAS that the Itami > version had been withdrawn from circulation by the Kawakita Foundation. So > well done - I wish I had known earlier. I very much hope the program > will travel. > I am pleased that the blog eventually starts addressing Yamaguchi?s > singing voice. Yamaguchi - in particular as Li Xanglan - was a voice > phenomenon if anything at all. I only spotted one word about that > elsewhere in the links. > I recommend anyone who can to go and listen to Markus' program. Is her > voice ?tremulous? or ?a voice that hits every note in the middle, without > a hint of vibrato > ?. It > can?t be both (although I just slightly overstate it). > best, > Roger > > ------------------------------ > *From:* Markus Nornes > *To:* Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum > *Sent:* Monday, 23 March 2015, 6:33 > *Subject:* [KineJapan] Yamaguchi vs. Hara > > I programmed the Japan Society of New York's current film series, which > commemorates the 70th anniversary of WWII. It contrasts the wartime work of > Hara Setsuko and Yamaguchi Toshiko, as well as their postwar relationship > to their wartime activities. If you are in New York, please check it out. > > > http://www.japansociety.org/page/programs/film/globus-film-series-2015-the-most-beautiful > > I couldn't make it, but they asked for a video introduction. It's on their > site, the best I could do with an afternoon and an iPad. Thankfully, there > will be great introductions by Darrell Davis and Ian Buruma. And Yomota > Inuhiko will do a lecture about Yamaguchi; I saw this at Uplink a couple > months ago, and it's very fascinating. > > There have been a couple great write-ups. Nick Pinkerton came up with an > amazing headline, "Pretty Hurts": > > http://artforum.com/film/id=50948 > > And Mike Hale from the Times has an excellent piece that concentrates on > Yamaguchi: > > http://nyti.ms/1CDI1nw > > One of the spectators dropped me a line. He has a quite amazing website on > Yamaguchi that is reprinting all sorts of things. Fascinating stuff. You > can get lost in there for a considerable time! > > www.yoshikoyamaguchi.blogspot.com > > Markus > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.osu.edu > https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.osu.edu > https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -- *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* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From macyroger at yahoo.co.uk Wed Mar 25 07:48:17 2015 From: macyroger at yahoo.co.uk (Roger Macy) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 11:48:17 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [KineJapan] Fw: Yamaguchi vs. Hara In-Reply-To: <1729220584.1272649.1427244131864.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> References: <1729220584.1272649.1427244131864.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <980069927.1686560.1427284097378.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> Ah, and by looking at John Shubert's books page, I see the translation credit is to Chang Chia-ning, whose new english translation of Yamaguchi's memoirs is just out https://www.uhawaiipress.com/p-9324-9780824839840.aspxRoger From: Markus Nornes To: Roger Macy ; Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum Sent: Tuesday, 24 March 2015, 23:17 Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Yamaguchi vs. Hara Sorry about that. I really should have included the website author's name. It's?John Shubert, and he is a structural engineer. I wonder if he's on KineJapan??? Markus On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 4:51 AM, Roger Macy wrote: Thanks Markusfor this.? You?re certainly right aboutthe fascinating blog.? I?m nothing likethrough with it.? Does ?one of myspectators? have a name ?? He certainlydeserves an author/translator credit.I was particularlyinterested to see that you had secured the Itami version of Atarashikitsuchi of which I have only seen brief clips.? In fact, I was only told last month at apresentation at SOAS that the Itami version had been withdrawn from circulationby the Kawakita Foundation.? So well done- I wish I had known earlier.? I verymuch hope the program will travel.I am pleasedthat the blog eventually starts addressing Yamaguchi?s singing voice.?? Yamaguchi - in particular as Li Xanglan -was a voice phenomenon if anything at all.?I only spotted one word about that elsewhere in the links.I recommendanyone who can to go and listen to Markus' program.?Is her voice ?tremulous? or ?a voicethat hits every note in the middle, without a hint of vibrato ?.? It can?t be both (although I just slightly overstate it).best,Roger From: Markus Nornes To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum Sent: Monday, 23 March 2015, 6:33 Subject: [KineJapan] Yamaguchi vs. Hara I programmed the Japan Society of New York's current film series, which commemorates the 70th anniversary of WWII. It contrasts the wartime work of Hara Setsuko and Yamaguchi Toshiko, as well as their postwar relationship to their wartime activities. If you are in New York, please check it out.? http://www.japansociety.org/page/programs/film/globus-film-series-2015-the-most-beautiful I couldn't make it, but they asked for a video introduction. It's on their site, the best I could do with an afternoon and an iPad.? Thankfully, there will be great introductions by Darrell Davis and Ian Buruma. And Yomota Inuhiko will do a lecture about Yamaguchi; I saw this at Uplink a couple months ago, and it's very fascinating.? There have been a couple great write-ups. Nick Pinkerton came up with an amazing headline, "Pretty Hurts":? http://artforum.com/film/id=50948 And Mike Hale from the Times has an excellent piece that concentrates on Yamaguchi:? http://nyti.ms/1CDI1nw One of the spectators dropped me a line. He has a quite amazing website on Yamaguchi that is reprinting all sorts of things. Fascinating stuff. You can get lost in there for a considerable time! www.yoshikoyamaguchi.blogspot.com Markus _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -- Markus NornesChair, Department of?Screen Arts and CulturesProfessor of Asian Cinema, Department of Asian Languages and CulturesProfessor, School of Art & Design Department of Screen Arts and Cultures6348 North Quad105 S. State StreetAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1285 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From amnornes at umich.edu Sat Mar 28 09:05:43 2015 From: amnornes at umich.edu (Markus Nornes) Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 22:05:43 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Hara Kazuo's Cinema Juku wraps up Message-ID: Today was the last day of Hara Kazuo?s Cinema Juku. This was a year-long series of talks with the theme of documenting the self. Hara gathered people at Athenee Francais once a month for sessions featuring a mix of screenings and discussion with filmmakers. It included foreign filmmakers like Gina Kim and Wu Wenguang. You can see the whole lineup at their website: http://newcinemajuku.net Today?s session was to sum up everything, pivoting around the debate between producer Yasuoka Takaharu and Sato Makoto in 2003. Sato was quite critical of the ?self-documentary? that had taken over Japanese documentary, and Yasuoka was a supporter. They touched on the debate, but constant sidetracks (some pretty interesting) kept them from really wrapping things up in any serious way. It?s too bad. Today?s juku also suffered from a problem that ran through the entire year. The place of women in the project was really quite problematic. This was true from the start, when the largely female staff bailed and left the juku after the first month or two. And while Hara did feature a number of important women, like Kawase Naomi, Hamano Sachi, and Yang Yonghi, too often they were relegated to themes connected to women; thus, it was not surprising that no women were invited to today?s meta-level wrap-up of the year?s efforts. Hara also treated men and women very differently. Men were cut a lot of slack, given mostly softball questions, and questionable behavior was excused with little to no comment. For example, pink director Hirano Katsuyuki talked about the children that he fathered (ultimately in absentia, except for the sex act) he admitted he doesn?t really care to even see them, but sometimes gives them presents. Hara did little more than laugh. But when when women took the stage, Hara relentlessly questioned them about their most intimate personal lives. It was sometimes quite uncomfortable, as when he pressed Kawase Naomi about the state of her marriage. Just today this blind spot about gender was particularly obvious. One of today?s films was Kazoku Ketchup, one of the earliest self-documentaries, which begins with the main character urinating on his mother in front of the family shrine. Hara said little about this scene except that it ?took courage.? In contrast, later in the day Hara showed Sato Makoto?s diary film about the birth of his second daughter, and ridiculed Sato and the film. He didn?t get far into his reasons, but it was clear he couldn?t see how a well-functioning couple going through childbirth?together?had any social dimension. He seemed blind to what was going on in the film, perhaps because there was nothing extreme or provocative in it. Or it could just be that the two never got along. But it could just be Hara?s blind spot; earlier in the juku he was perplexed why his daughter from Extreme Private Eros?who he admitted he hardly spent time with over the decades?refused to go on stage when he showed the film?.in turn perplexing many audience members who wondered why he didn?t get it. This was all rather unfortunate, because Hara is very smart otherwise, listens to people with a special intensity, and generally holds great discussions. I learned a lot in the juku, and admired the ambition to hold such sustained discussion. Just today, there were several high points with Kawanaka Nobuhiro and Matsue Tetsuaki. But I also understood why so many people stopped coming halfway through. Markus -- *Markus Nornes* 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* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From amnornes at umich.edu Sat Mar 28 23:32:05 2015 From: amnornes at umich.edu (Markus Nornes) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 12:32:05 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Hara Kazuo's Cinema Juku wraps up In-Reply-To: References:

Message-ID: Japanese self-documentary was completely cut off from its foreign counterparts. And the choices were not the obvious ones. They were people that have already had contact with Japanese, often through Yamagata. That he could have all these foreigners and not make any substantial connections says a lot about the generally hermetically sealed discourse that goes on here. There's a lack of translation, so they are not aware of the way "self-documentary" has been discussed through Montaigne and the idea of the "essayistic." No one is reading English texts, so no one has introduced that. The only scholar that was called on what a fellow named Serizawa, who came from a psychological POV. Discussions were strictly between panelists; if you wanted to pitch in, you had to wait until the end of the day and submit a question in writing and hope Hara chose it from the pile. I had plenty of things to say or add, but was never called on. Too bad. It resulted in a strange disconnect between how its perceived here and what's been going on abroad for decades. Abroad, you have mature filmmakers like Marker, Hammer, Varda, Trinh, McElwee, and many others. There is a strong attention to film form, while being tied to a personal POV. In Japan, the discussion kept devolving toward a group of one-hit-wonder young people making films about their families and then disappearing. This was one of Sato's main complaints in the debate with Yasuoka. And in the years before his death, he was increasingly exploring the essayistic films abroad and beginning to make his own. Thus, yesterday Hara showed (and made fun of) a TV program Sato made about the birth of his second daughter?made in a direct cinema style with a television network, over two decades ago and just after his first big film, and probably just to make some cash; it's significant that not a single person mentioned Memories of Agano, a truly essayistic film and Sato's late attempt to push the self-documentary in a new, formally inventive direction. Sato Makoto's death was a huge, huge loss for Japanese cinema. Markus On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 11:48 AM, Alex Zahlten wrote: > Markus, thank you for a great description of the Cinema Juku talks! I was > wondering how Hara set up the relation of documentaries made in Japan and > those made in other contexts. Since the Juku explicitly makes the > distinction via the title of "Kaigai ni okeru serufu" I wondered how Hara > handled this in the talks themselves. > > Best, > Alex > > > *Gesendet:* Samstag, 28. M?rz 2015 um 14:05 Uhr > *Von:* "Markus Nornes" > *An:* "Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum" > *Betreff:* [KineJapan] Hara Kazuo's Cinema Juku wraps up > > Today was the last day of Hara Kazuo?s Cinema Juku. This was a year-long > series of talks with the theme of documenting the self. Hara gathered > people at Athenee Francais once a month for sessions featuring a mix of > screenings and discussion with filmmakers. It included foreign filmmakers > like Gina Kim and Wu Wenguang. You can see the whole lineup at their > website: http://newcinemajuku.net > > > > Today?s session was to sum up everything, pivoting around the debate > between producer Yasuoka Takaharu and Sato Makoto in 2003. Sato was quite > critical of the ?self-documentary? that had taken over Japanese > documentary, and Yasuoka was a supporter. They touched on the debate, but > constant sidetracks (some pretty interesting) kept them from really > wrapping things up in any serious way. It?s too bad. > > > > Today?s juku also suffered from a problem that ran through the entire > year. The place of women in the project was really quite problematic. This > was true from the start, when the largely female staff bailed and left the > juku after the first month or two. And while Hara did feature a number of > important women, like Kawase Naomi, Hamano Sachi, and Yang Yonghi, too > often they were relegated to themes connected to women; thus, it was not > surprising that no women were invited to today?s meta-level wrap-up of the > year?s efforts. Hara also treated men and women very differently. Men were > cut a lot of slack, given mostly softball questions, and questionable > behavior was excused with little to no comment. For example, pink director > Hirano Katsuyuki talked about the children that he fathered (ultimately in > absentia, except for the sex act) he admitted he doesn?t really care to > even see them, but sometimes gives them presents. Hara did little more than > laugh. But when when women took the stage, Hara relentlessly questioned > them about their most intimate personal lives. It was sometimes quite > uncomfortable, as when he pressed Kawase Naomi about the state of her > marriage. > > > > Just today this blind spot about gender was particularly obvious. One of > today?s films was Kazoku Ketchup, one of the earliest self-documentaries, > which begins with the main character urinating on his mother in front of > the family shrine. Hara said little about this scene except that it ?took > courage.? In contrast, later in the day Hara showed Sato Makoto?s diary > film about the birth of his second daughter, and ridiculed Sato and the > film. He didn?t get far into his reasons, but it was clear he couldn?t see > how a well-functioning couple going through childbirth?together?had any > social dimension. He seemed blind to what was going on in the film, perhaps > because there was nothing extreme or provocative in it. Or it could just be > that the two never got along. But it could just be Hara?s blind spot; > earlier in the juku he was perplexed why his daughter from Extreme Private > Eros?who he admitted he hardly spent time with over the decades?refused to > go on stage when he showed the film?.in turn perplexing many audience > members who wondered why he didn?t get it. > > > > This was all rather unfortunate, because Hara is very smart otherwise, > listens to people with a special intensity, and generally holds great > discussions. I learned a lot in the juku, and admired the ambition to hold > such sustained discussion. Just today, there were several high points with > Kawanaka Nobuhiro and Matsue Tetsuaki. But I also understood why so many > people stopped coming halfway through. > > > > Markus > > -- > *Markus Nornes* > 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* > > > _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.osu.edu > https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -- *Markus Nornes* 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* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From matteo.boscarol at gmail.com Sun Mar 29 04:15:32 2015 From: matteo.boscarol at gmail.com (matteo.boscarol at gmail.com) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 17:15:32 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Hara Kazuo's Cinema Juku wraps up In-Reply-To: References:

Message-ID: I couldn't agree more, Sato was somehow more in tune with the international documentary milieu (even if unintentionally) and very interested in the "filmic" aspect of non-fiction, Memories of Agano, Self and Others (2 of my favourite Japanese documentaries) and partially Out of Place: Memories of Edward Said are perfect examples of this aesthetic approach (almost a "return" to the fukeiron of the 60s/70s). With some notable exceptions, if when we compare contemporary Japanese documentary with its international counterpart, I find it to be too much on the amateurish side, so to speak, and too focussed on "what" to film and less on "how", but I don't want to generalise and it would be nice to hear what the other members of the list think about this. Regards Matteo Boscarol ????? ???? ??????????? - History of Japanese Documentary http://storiadocgiappone.wordpress.com - Torino Film Festival Asia consultant (Onde, Doc) http://www.torinofilmfest.org - Sonatine2010 http://www.sonatine2010.blogspot.jp - Screenweek Japan http://blog.screenweek.it/rubrica/sw-japan > On Mar 29, 2015, at 12:32 PM, Markus Nornes wrote: > > Japanese self-documentary was completely cut off from its foreign counterparts. And the choices were not the obvious ones. They were people that have already had contact with Japanese, often through Yamagata. > > That he could have all these foreigners and not make any substantial connections says a lot about the generally hermetically sealed discourse that goes on here. There's a lack of translation, so they are not aware of the way "self-documentary" has been discussed through Montaigne and the idea of the "essayistic." No one is reading English texts, so no one has introduced that. The only scholar that was called on what a fellow named Serizawa, who came from a psychological POV. Discussions were strictly between panelists; if you wanted to pitch in, you had to wait until the end of the day and submit a question in writing and hope Hara chose it from the pile. I had plenty of things to say or add, but was never called on. Too bad. > > It resulted in a strange disconnect between how its perceived here and what's been going on abroad for decades. Abroad, you have mature filmmakers like Marker, Hammer, Varda, Trinh, McElwee, and many others. There is a strong attention to film form, while being tied to a personal POV. In Japan, the discussion kept devolving toward a group of one-hit-wonder young people making films about their families and then disappearing. This was one of Sato's main complaints in the debate with Yasuoka. And in the years before his death, he was increasingly exploring the essayistic films abroad and beginning to make his own. Thus, yesterday Hara showed (and made fun of) a TV program Sato made about the birth of his second daughter?made in a direct cinema style with a television network, over two decades ago and just after his first big film, and probably just to make some cash; it's significant that not a single person mentioned Memories of Agano, a truly essayistic film and Sato's late attempt to push the self-documentary in a new, formally inventive direction. > > Sato Makoto's death was a huge, huge loss for Japanese cinema. > > Markus > >> On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 11:48 AM, Alex Zahlten wrote: >> Markus, thank you for a great description of the Cinema Juku talks! I was wondering how Hara set up the relation of documentaries made in Japan and those made in other contexts. Since the Juku explicitly makes the distinction via the title of "Kaigai ni okeru serufu" I wondered how Hara handled this in the talks themselves. >> >> Best, >> Alex >> >> >> Gesendet: Samstag, 28. M?rz 2015 um 14:05 Uhr >> Von: "Markus Nornes" >> An: "Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum" >> Betreff: [KineJapan] Hara Kazuo's Cinema Juku wraps up >> Today was the last day of Hara Kazuo?s Cinema Juku. This was a year-long series of talks with the theme of documenting the self. Hara gathered people at Athenee Francais once a month for sessions featuring a mix of screenings and discussion with filmmakers. It included foreign filmmakers like Gina Kim and Wu Wenguang. You can see the whole lineup at their website: http://newcinemajuku.net >> >> Today?s session was to sum up everything, pivoting around the debate between producer Yasuoka Takaharu and Sato Makoto in 2003. Sato was quite critical of the ?self-documentary? that had taken over Japanese documentary, and Yasuoka was a supporter. They touched on the debate, but constant sidetracks (some pretty interesting) kept them from really wrapping things up in any serious way. It?s too bad. >> >> Today?s juku also suffered from a problem that ran through the entire year. The place of women in the project was really quite problematic. This was true from the start, when the largely female staff bailed and left the juku after the first month or two. And while Hara did feature a number of important women, like Kawase Naomi, Hamano Sachi, and Yang Yonghi, too often they were relegated to themes connected to women; thus, it was not surprising that no women were invited to today?s meta-level wrap-up of the year?s efforts. Hara also treated men and women very differently. Men were cut a lot of slack, given mostly softball questions, and questionable behavior was excused with little to no comment. For example, pink director Hirano Katsuyuki talked about the children that he fathered (ultimately in absentia, except for the sex act) he admitted he doesn?t really care to even see them, but sometimes gives them presents. Hara did little more than laugh. But when when women took the stage, Hara relentlessly questioned them about their most intimate personal lives. It was sometimes quite uncomfortable, as when he pressed Kawase Naomi about the state of her marriage. >> >> Just today this blind spot about gender was particularly obvious. One of today?s films was Kazoku Ketchup, one of the earliest self-documentaries, which begins with the main character urinating on his mother in front of the family shrine. Hara said little about this scene except that it ?took courage.? In contrast, later in the day Hara showed Sato Makoto?s diary film about the birth of his second daughter, and ridiculed Sato and the film. He didn?t get far into his reasons, but it was clear he couldn?t see how a well-functioning couple going through childbirth?together?had any social dimension. He seemed blind to what was going on in the film, perhaps because there was nothing extreme or provocative in it. Or it could just be that the two never got along. But it could just be Hara?s blind spot; earlier in the juku he was perplexed why his daughter from Extreme Private Eros?who he admitted he hardly spent time with over the decades?refused to go on stage when he showed the film?.in turn perplexing many audience members who wondered why he didn?t get it. >> >> This was all rather unfortunate, because Hara is very smart otherwise, listens to people with a special intensity, and generally holds great discussions. I learned a lot in the juku, and admired the ambition to hold such sustained discussion. Just today, there were several high points with Kawanaka Nobuhiro and Matsue Tetsuaki. But I also understood why so many people stopped coming halfway through. >> >> Markus >> >> -- >> Markus Nornes >> 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 >> >> >> _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan >> >> _______________________________________________ >> KineJapan mailing list >> KineJapan at lists.osu.edu >> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > > > -- > Markus Nornes > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.osu.edu > https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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