[KineJapan] RIP Roger Macy

Fri Oct 24 11:36:36 EDT 2025

Dear all,

Joining all of you in grief and gratitude for Roger’s exuberant
contributions to Japanese film studies and this listserv.

I first met him at the Kinema Club at Yale in 2019. I was quite intimidated
to meet so many of you big names from the list. He was very kind and happy
to talk to a young scholar like me. He’ll certainly be missed.

Are there any plans being considered to celebrate/memorialize his work in
Japanese film?

Best,
Caitlin

On Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 10:54 AM Rea Amit via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

> Thank you, Alex, for bringing us the sad news, and everyone for sharing
> your thoughts and memories.
>
> It might be a cliche to say that you only realize how important someone is
> after they are gone, but it feels especially true in Roger’s case. I first
> met him in person in Japan, probably more than fifteen years ago. The last
> time was when Lauri Kitsnik and Alex Jacoby organized a symposium at the
> Sainsbury Institute, almost a decade ago now. I remember Roger asking me
> very specific questions after my talk about one of the references I had
> mentioned. In his own way, he was more of a scholar than many who hold
> academic positions.
>
> Despite not interacting with him directly more recently, thanks to this
> mail list, it always felt like Roger was never too far away. He was a core
> member of this community, which, as a collective, will never be the same
> without him.
> With best regards,
> Rea
>
> On Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 9:35 AM Florian Höhr via KineJapan <
> kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> Very sad news indeed. I had the pleasure of meeting Roger many times at
>> Nippon Connection over the past ten years, and his pure enthusiasm and
>> passion — both for the festival and for Japanese cinema in general — left a
>> lasting impression on me. He was never shy about voicing his strong
>> opinions on our programming, and while I didn’t always agree with his
>> views, I deeply admired his honesty. Thanks to his wit, even his most
>> controversial remarks were a joy to read. During the many Q&As I hosted
>> after festival screenings, whenever Roger raised his hand, I was looking
>> forward to hearing what he had to say, knowing his question would be
>> interesting. Especially after screenings of more niche films, when the
>> audience was often too shy to speak up, Roger was always there to come to
>> the rescue. I’ll miss having him around at future festivals.
>>
>> Best,
>> Florian
>> --
>> Program Director
>>
>> Nippon Connection
>> ** * *
>> 26th Japanese Film Festival
>> June 2 – 7, 2026
>> Frankfurt am Main, Germany
>>
>> Office: Nippon Connection e.V., c/o Atelierfrankfurt
>> Schwedlerstr. 1-5, 60314 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/Schwedlerstr.+1-5,+60314+Frankfurt+am+Main,+Germany?entry=gmail&source=g>
>> Phone: +49 69 847 765 65, Fax: +49 69 847 765 66
>> Florian at NipponConnection.com
>> NipponConnection.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Am Fr., 24. Okt. 2025 um 22:55 Uhr schrieb Peter Larson via KineJapan <
>> kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>:
>>
>>> Well, this is sad to me, I've lurked here for decades, but Roger's
>>> enthusiastically odd posts were always a welcome part of this place. I am
>>> shocked to hear this and saddened, even though I never met him and never
>>> saw his face.
>>>
>>> I think that while this group wears a sort of academic veneer (not a bad
>>> thing!), there is a lot of fandom here, and Roger sort of embodied that
>>> very positive part of it.
>>>
>>> Pete
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 9:22 AM Dolores Martinez via KineJapan <
>>> kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear all, Roger was always happy to add to, correct,  and even be
>>>> corrected on Japanese film (we had an interesting exchange about Ikiru and
>>>> A Matter of Life and Death — whether Kurosawa had ever met Powell, and it
>>>> turned out he had — for once I was right!). He was always kind and generous
>>>> with what he knew and pursued film festivals and conferences with great
>>>> passion.  I shall miss chatting and, occasionally, emailing with him.
>>>> Lola
>>>> ------------------------------
>>>> *From:* KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of
>>>> Bernardi, Joanne via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
>>>> *Sent:* 24 October 2025 14:14
>>>> *To:* kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
>>>> *Cc:* Bernardi, Joanne <joanne.bernardi at rochester.edu>
>>>> *Subject:* Re: [KineJapan] RIP Roger Macy
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I regret I never met Roger (we had a brief exchange only as small Zoom
>>>> windows during an online conference), but I certainly benefited from
>>>> reading his posts. I always marveled at his degree of enthusiasm for
>>>> Japanese cinema, which was evident from the frequency, length, and
>>>> relentless detail of his posts. I’m grateful to fellow list members who’ve
>>>> posted their recollections of a memorable individual, and I’m reminded of
>>>> the sense of community this listserv provides. This is true now, more than
>>>> ever, when our community of film enthusiasts stretches across a world
>>>> fraught with challenges potentially more disruptive than geographical
>>>> distance.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Joanne
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Joanne Bernardi
>>>>
>>>> University of Rochester
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> KineJapan mailing list
>>>> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
>>>> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> KineJapan mailing list
>>> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
>>> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> KineJapan mailing list
>> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
>> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>>
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20251024/e6b38f48/attachment.html>