[KineJapan] RIP Roger Macy

[Jasper Sharp]

Thank you for sharing the news Alex. This is a real shock, especially now that I realise that despite Roger being such a familiar face at all Japan-film related events in the UK and a regular at Nippon Connection, I can't recall the last time I actually saw him . I shall contact you off list about the funeral.


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________________________________
From: KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of quentin turnour via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Sent: 24 October 2025 14:00
To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Cc: quentin turnour <unkleque at yahoo.com.au>
Subject: Re: [KineJapan] RIP Roger Macy

Roger was an independent - and, yes occasionally eccentric - scholar. In the best British tradition, yes. Not the least for his intense, sometimes risk taking passion for birdwatching, which took him even further afield than his passion for various European and Asian cinemas.

This is a reminder that cinema is a field of study and research which globally has always had - and still needs - outsider, anarchistic, self-funded, self-opinionated, and self-starting scholars. And that we shouldn't lose respect for their tradition and their spirit, as cinema studies becomes increasingly acedamismised and isolated from cinephilla.

Case in point: as recently as 2024's Pordenone silent film festival I saw Roger ask questions of a panel of professional archivists that cut through the topic in a way that none of their other professional peers present perhaps might have risked. Including me. I remember being surprised at the acuity of his questions. But Prof. Ian Christie - sitting next to me, and who knew Roger better and longer than I had realise - just giggled and said: "well that's a very Roger question".

All stay safe and well.

Quentin Turnour.
National Archives of Australia / Cinema Reborn Film festival / etc, etc.

On Friday, 24 October 2025 at 10:10:50 pm AEDT, Earl Jackson via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:


Dear Alexander,
Thank you for letting us know the sad news of Roger Macy's death. His love of Japanese cinema was as boundless as his enthusiasm. He threw himself into the appreciation of these films with a fervor rarely seen and certainly underappreciated. A wonderful eccentric whose sincerity was as disarming as it was refreshing. May his memory be a blessing.
ej

Earl Jackson
Professor, Emeritus
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Associate Professor, Emeritus
University of California, Santa Cruz, the US


On Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 7:02 PM Alexander Jacoby via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>> wrote:
Dear all,

I thought members of KineJapan might wish to be informed of the death of Roger Macy, who often posed queries and engaged in discussion about Japanese film via this mailing list. His son, who I don't know personally, contacted me the other day by text to share the news.

Roger was a true enthusiast, whose interest in Japanese film and Japan in general stemmed in part from family matters; his daughter had settled and married in the country. He took his enthusiasm seriously and engaged in his own private research into Japanese cinema. His opinions about the films he watched and discussed were sometimes eccentric, even at times infuriating, but always stimulating, and he was a source of entertaining and knowledgeable conversation.

Although he had no academic post, he regularly travelled to conferences and lectures on film and Japan-related themes, and voyaged across Britain, to Paris and to the Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna to see rare movies. Alas, this year he was not able to go to Bologna. When I visited him last month in the nursing home to which his final illness confined him, he was still lamenting that fact, as well as the failing eyesight which now prevented him from watching films.

To many people on this list he will have been a name rather than a face, and others will have known him only slightly. For anybody who knew him well, the funeral will be on Saturday 8th November in London; I'm happy to share details if messaged off-list.

Best wishes,


Alexander Jacoby
(Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies, Oxford Brookes University)
alexanderjacoby at brookes.ac.uk<mailto:alexanderjacoby at brookes.ac.uk>
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