[KineJapan] Seeking Film Prints for Screening: Works by Ito Takashi and Matsumoto Toshio

[Kielich, Steven]

Dear all,



We are writing on behalf of On Film, a student-run organization at the University of Rochester dedicated to presenting important and rarely screened films on 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm. Our mission is to facilitate meaningful encounters with cinema as both material objects and aesthetic experiences, with a focus on how films resonate across formal, narrative, and historical contexts.



Currently, we are curating a two-part series on Japanese experimental cinema. The first half will spotlight the avant-garde short films and documentaries of Ito Takashi and Matsumoto Toshio, while the second half will culminate in a centennial screening of Kinugasa Teinosuke’s experimental 1926 feature A Page of Madness.



We are already coordinating with the George Eastman Museum, which will provide a 35mm print of A Page of Madness, but we are currently seeking information on where to acquire film prints of the following works by Ito and Matsumoto:



  *   Ātman (1975, Matsumoto)
  *   Spacy (1981, Ito)
  *   Box (1982, Ito)
  *   Shift (1982, Matsumoto)
  *   Thunder (1982, Ito)
  *   Ghost (1985, Ito)
  *   Grim (1985, Ito)
  *   Engram (1987, Matsumoto)
  *   Wall (1987, Ito)
  *   Apparatus M (1996, Ito)



We would be grateful for any guidance or contacts related to archives, institutions, or distributors—whether in the U.S., Japan, or elsewhere—through which we might rent and obtain screening rights for these films. We are aware of the logistical challenges involved, and we understand that we might have to project some of these digitally, but our priority is to present as many of these works on film as possible, in keeping with our organization’s ethos.



Thank you in advance for any recommendations or direction you may be able to offer.



Best,

Steven Kielich and Liam Kilby, event programmers
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