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

Sun Oct 19 00:45:58 EDT 2025

Dear Steven,

You might want to contact Fukuoka City Public Library Film Archive.

In a recent presentation at YIDFF it was confirmed their collection holds materials related to the work of Fukuoka-born Ito Takashi. Their generic e-mail address, in the online FIAF directory, is filmarchive_2022 at toshokan.city.fukuoka.lg.jp<mailto:filmarchive_2022 at toshokan.city.fukuoka.lg.jp>

In a broader context and personally speaking, I cannot help but say once again that the desire to project physical film and the concomitant risk to the print by doing so, not to mention the environmental impact of its shipping and the potential environmental cost of reprinting, if the technology to do so even remains, is a matter that requires serious consideration by all festival programmers and curators.

Good luck with your search and the festival.

Adrian Wood
Fukuoka, Japan.

Founding Director, ACPAC<https://acpacnet.org/about/>
Founder & Coordinator, Restoration Asia<https://restorationasia.org/history/>

From: KineJapan On Behalf Of Markus Nornes via KineJapan
Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2025 9:37 AM
To: KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Cc: Markus Nornes <nornes at umich.edu>; Kilby, Liam <lkilby at ur.rochester.edu>
Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Seeking Film Prints for Screening: Works by Ito Takashi and Matsumoto Toshio

Love your project!

Start with Filmmakers Coop, Anthology, Canyon. There are other filmmakers represented at these places like Oe and Iimura. It might be easier for you to open it up.

Image Forum can help you with many, if not all, of the films on your list.

It’s been a long time since I’ve programmed these guys on 16mm, so those who have done more recent programming might have other leads for you.

Markus

On Oct 18, 2025, at 11:08 PM, Kielich, Steven via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>> wrote:

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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