[KineJapan] RIP Roger Macy

[Markus Nornes]

Oh Roger, Roger. I will miss you. I had no idea, so this came as quite a shock. 

Roger was one of a number of non-academic lovers of Japanese cinema that are key to our group’s vivaciousness and longevity. It’s what enables Kinema Club to minimize, if not rub out, the difference between scholars, critics, cineastes, fans or whatever boundaries that needlessly sort us all out. I dug into the KineJapan archives to figure out when Roger graced us with his virtual presence. It was (probably*) December 1st, 2007 and he was all Roger out of the gate.

Yuna de Lannoy asked about Noh-inspired films from the fascist period and Roger makes his impressive first-appearance with the suggestion of Naruse’s Uta andon (1943). Damn! This was a year before Catherine Russell’s book came out, which makes it all the more impressive. 

He follows this up the same day with a call for help. How does one use the persnickety JMDb for a 1920s film even if you can't read kanji? In subsequent posts that December, it becomes clear why he asks:  he’s investigating the identity of a "J. Shige Sudzuky,” who wrote a 1929 article in Close-up. He was archive diving and braving the language barrier long before Google translate. 

In those posts, he self-consciously refers to himself as a “bluffer” and writes, “I'm prepared to make a fool of myself again in order to learn something.” Roger was fearless. And it wasn’t long before he made himself at home in the Kinema Club community. Those self-conscious asides disappear as his posts turn from informational inquiries to analytical reviews of events and smart contributions to threads on films and filmmakers. And then he began showing up at Kinema Club events and his presence became indelible. 

I got to know him over the years from both his posts and through numerous encounters around the world. I even couch surfed his flat once. But Roger also kept his boundaries clean. He would talk glowingly of his family, but not himself. My curiosity tested his patience when I asked about the career that sustained his serious avocation in the Japanese cinema. I have my suspicions, but in deference to his cagey avoidance of the topic I’ll keep them to myself. Roger surely wants to be remembered for his wonderful contributions to the study and loving of Japanese cinema. Some of those are ephemeral, and mainly preserved in our memories which are fated to disappear. But thankfully, we will still have his formal writings for venues like Midnight Eye and Senses of Cinema, and his incisive and sometimes provocative contributions preserved in the KineJapan archive. 

Goodbye, Roger.

Markus

PS: Alex, of course you can share all this, and permission is unnecessary. KineJapan is a form of publication and it is archived <https://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/> and searchable. 

* The KineJapan archive is not perfect, so it might have been before this.
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