[KineJapan] 6/6—10 From YIDFF—Pickles and Komian Club

Tue Feb 1 15:15:37 EST 2022

Hi everyone,

I hope it didn't escape your notice that dafilms.com is streaming 10 key
Japanese documentaries that launched from Yamagata International
Documentary Film Festival.

https://asia.dafilms.com/spotlight-on/1129-yamagata2021

The festival asked me to write up some blog posts about both the films
vis-a-vis the festival. I contributed six short essays, and since they were
only distributed by Facebook, I thought I'd post them here as well.

Cheers,

Markus

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[image: 1999-Komian-1_small.jpg]

*Pickles and Komian Club*

Anyone who has been to Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
should watch *Pickles and Komian Club *(*Maruhachi Yatarazuke Komian,* 2020).
Anyone who has yet to visit Yamagata should watch this film. I guess that
means *everyone* should watch *Pickles and Komian Club! *

This is a documentary about a tsukemono-ya—a pickle shop/restaurant—near
Yamagata’s City Hall, its history, its central role in Asian documentary
film culture and, sadly, its demise. My first festival back in 1991 was
incredibly exciting. I was busy most of the day and night tending to my own
program commemorating the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. We ran films
and symposia from morning to pretty late at night. And when we wrapped up
each evening, it was time to kick back and relax. But there were two
problems. The first was that Yamagata is no Shibuya, so shops and
restaurants start shutting down regrettably early. The second was that what
was open was pretty expensive. This was particularly true for the
independent filmmakers from other Asian countries.

The festival recognized this as a problem and set to work on it. Gearing up
for the next festival, the staff in Yamagata announced they had an idea. A
local tsukemono-ya wanted to invite the *entire festival* to hang out after
the films ended. It was a brilliant idea, and soon became one of the
hallmarks of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival—it soon
became the heart and soul of the festival.

Film festivals are racked by hierarchy, and the bigger the festival the
harder it becomes to penetrate the inner realms. I realized that at my
first film festival job, the Hawai’i International Film Festival in 1988.
At the time, Hawai’i was known as the place to go to see the latest Asian
films. It was packed with scholars, programmers and filmmakers from across
the region. As an intern, one of my tasks was to help create and manage the
large fundraising operation that kept the festival not just running, but
free to the public.

This was my first introduction to film festival hierarchy, as the more
money one gave the more access one had to special events where the famous
guests were put on parade. This was most palpable to me at the opening
night party, where the festival’s filmmakers rubbed elbows with the
wealthiest donors around Jack Lord’s swimming pool beneath Diamondhead. The
festival’s slogan—When Strangers Meet—felt a bit disingenuous to me, since
the ticket to that glitzy party depended a lot on which gifting level you
came in at.

A few years later, I had a chance to visit Berlin International Film
Festival in my capacity as a programmer. It came as something of a shock to
learn that my badge got me free films and not much else. I couldn’t visit
the market, though the researcher in me was dying to experience it. I was
invited to one reception, but none of the others I heard about. Like all
the big festivals, one’s distance from the seductive center of things is
determined by the color of one’s badge. And if you don’t have a badge, then
the festival positions you as mere consumer of tickets.

Yamagata was different.

And the difference was most obvious at the Komian Club. It opened at 10:00
each evening, and no matter what direction you approached from you’d bump
into other festival people with the same goal. By the opening time, there
was always a small crowd. Everyone mingling and chatting in anticipation.
When they opened the doors, everyone filed in past huge tubs filled with
sake and beer. For a 500 yen coin, the cheerful staff would hand over a
drink and a snack. Within the hour, the place was packed with festivalgoers.

[image: 2019 Komian--1_small.jpg]

The space beyond was riotous and complex. Maruhachi Yatarazuke was over a
century old. The facility was essentially a collection of old buildings all
connected together. After receiving a drink, one faced a long, narrow
hallway. It was like a gauntlet, forcing one to weave in and out around
people, friends new and old stopping you to chat every few feet. Off to the
right was a large room with tables. A bit further down, a staircase led to
platform covered with shoes and a big tatami room beyond. To the left of
the stairway was the kitchen, where more staff busily prepared food.

A bit beyond this was a long room with a few more tables. I always loved
the decorations in this room; it had huge wooden vats, ancient farm
implements, and not quite as ancient skis. These included a pair of
venerable Olin Mark IVs, which I skied on during my childhood in
Colorado—as it happened, Yamagata and Boulder are sister cities, another
reason I came to love it). Behind this room were the bathrooms, and more
secret corners where people would stand and chat.

[image: 2019 Komian-2-1_small.jpg]

By 11:00, every nook and cranny was filled with people from around the
world. Staff brought out big pots of *imoni,* a luscious potato soup
Yamagata people cook every fall. Some people would station themselves at a
particular corner. Others circulated from room to room, conversation to
conversation. Still others held court at one of the tables as friends
played musical chairs. It was a wonderful, moving spectacle.

*But what was truly special about Komian is that it was open to anyone with
a 500 yen coin. *Every night all the filmmakers, programmers, scholars,
film fans and citizens of Yamagata—the entire festival—converged on this
traditional pickle factory. Of course, there were still hierarchies because
we’re human; but through Komian, the festival created a temporary space
where everyone was in it together. They watched films all day and then
talked about them all night at Komian Club.

[image: 2017-Komian-1-1_small.jpg]

Strangers met, created relationships, and in this way Yamagata helped spin
a vast network of connections between independent artists and producers
across Asia and beyond to the world.

Tragically, Maruhachi Yatarazuke became a victim of the pandemic. In 2020,
after 135 years in business, they closed their doors. Incredibly, the new
owners tore down the beautiful old building, to be replaced by an apartment
block. A boring one, I’m sure. But I’m told that the festival staff are
hunting for a new space to gather in 2023.

Sato Koichi’s lovely film memorializes both the pickle factory and its
special role at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. He
also introduces us to the spectacular mountains of Yamagata and a bit of
its food culture. It’s a film that, yes, everyone should watch!
[image: 1999-Komian-2-1_small.jpg][image: 2019 Komian-著者ー理事-1_small.jpg]

---

*Markus Nornes*
*Professor of Asian Cinema*
*Interim Chair, Dept. of Asian Languages and Culture*

Department of Film, Television and Media, Department of Asian Languages and
Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art & Design

*Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/
<http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/>*
*Department of Film, Television and Media*
*6348 North Quad*
*105 S. State Street**Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285*
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