[KineJapan] Ogawa in Paris

Sun Apr 29 23:26:33 EDT 2018

thanks for the report Markus, the Rouch - Ogawa connection is indeed fascinating. 

On the connection between Ogawa Pro and Europe, there’s a short book titled Cinema: Giappone e Zengakuren (Cinema: Japan and Zengakuren) published in Italy in 1970 by Samonà e Savelli, later Savelli - La Nuova Sinistra, a publisher established in 1963 and the first to directly represent the extra-parliamentary left-wing in the Italian publishing world. 
The book is dedicated to Summer in Narita, a brief introduction outlining the Japanese political situation is then followed by a translation of some writings by members of Ogawa Pro, just a couple of paragraphs nothing more, while the main part of the volume is a transcription of the dialogues spoken in the film. 
And on the back cover: Comitato di Cinema e Rivoluzione: Baldelli, Filippi, Ivens, Ogawa, Rocha, Solanas, Straub (Cinema and Revolution's committee: Baldelli, Filippi, Ivens, Ogawa, Rocha, Solanas, Straub).

Regards

Matteo Boscarol
ボスカロル マッテオ
記憶ただ陽炎のゆらめき
- Documentary in Japan and Asia
http://storiadocgiappone.wordpress.com
- Film writer for Il Manifesto
http://ilmanifesto.it

> On Apr 30, 2018, at 11:02, Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu> wrote:
> 
> I thought I'd report from Paris, where a near-complete retrospective of Ogawa Pro's filmography just ended. The first half of the films was featured at Cinéma du Réel, and Jeu de Paume picked it up at Heta Buraku and ran until nearly the end of April. 
> 
> I was on hand for the first half, doing a dozen film introductions and three big lectures. I noticed many of the same faces from screening to screening. People there were captivated. Many had come from other countries just to see the films. They were lucky. Programmer Ricardo Matos Cabo worked very hard to find the best prints available, so almost all the films were shown on 16mm. The festival and museum also collaborated on new French subs for four or five of the films. I could tell they put the original English subs to shame.  
> 
> I met some very interesting people in the audience. The most memorable was a woman who had protested at Sanrizuka. She had been in China with Ivens, and then dropped in Japan to see what was happening (and Sanrizuka was a happening place to say the least). She had seen a handful of the Sanrizuka films in seminars with Jean Rouch. He would bring in a Japanese person to interpret over the soundtrack. How he got the prints, and where they are today, remain a mystery. Ricardo researched the latter and hit a brick wall.
> 
> The event was a great success. In fact, I heard that CdR was a little bummed that, despite this being their 40th anniversary, the press coverage was being dominated by the Ogawa retrospective—even in other countries like Italy and Portugal. Cahiers du Cinema devoted a 5-page spread to the event.
> 
> I'm attaching a notable article from Liberation. The editing here was fascinating. This Ogawa Retrospective coincided with the government's capitulation at Notre Dame, where there has been a major anti-airport struggle for nearly a couple decades (the airport project was announced around half a century ago). The protesters set up camps and have been squatting on the construction site and protesting since the project took on steam after the turn of the century. 
> 
> I first heard about this French airport protest last year, when I was introducing Ogawa Pro films at the ICA in London. A group of protesters from Notre Dame showed up to watch the Sanrizuka Series. They had pretty amazing perspectives on the films, as you can imagine. 
> 
> So it seems there was a major capitulation by the government when the  Ogawa series started up. And La Libération ran a striking front page on Notre Dame situation. Open up the paper, and there was a three-page spread on Ogawa. It was clever editing for sure.
> 
> <unnamed.jpg>
> 
> Just after returning from Japan, however, I heard that the construction site for invaded by riot police. They destroyed the entire camp, people's house, farms, and hurt people [https://zad.nadir.org/spip.php?article5445]. The pictures the NYT ran looked uncomfortably close to Sanrizuka. 
> 
> Finally, an amazing coda to the Ogawa Pro retrospective. The Economics University of Tolbiac was occupied by students at the beginning of April. The students organized a series of talks and screenings behind the barricades.....including Forest of Oppression, which some had seen at the Cinéma du Réel. Things went wrong, the university was attacked by a group of extreme right. It became violent. I'm told this is happening a lot in France. 
> 
> It seems Ogawa has never been so relevant. 
> 
> Markus
> --- 
> 
> Markus Nornes
> Professor of Asian Cinema
> Department of Screen Arts and Cultures, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Penny Stamps 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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