japanese

Special Invitation Films



Director Ogawa Shinsuke passed away with the footage for the tale of persimmons he had shot in Yamagata Prefecture’s Magino village still unedited. His friend, Chinese director Peng Xiaolian, has respectfully finished the work as Manzan Benigaki. Also seeing its Japanese premiere is American director Barbara Hammer’s Devotion, a work which pursues the true nature of this singular production unit through interviews with ex-Ogawa Production staff and associates. In addition, three Ogawa Productions’ works will screen at this year’s YIDFF.

Two of Yamagata’s favorite directors, Johan van der Keuken and Teshigahara Hiroshi, passed away earlier this year. Head of the jury at the first YIDFF, Teshigahara left us in April. We will be screening four of his films, including the little-seen AKO—White Morning. Van der Keuken appeared in the International Competition with The Eye above the Well at the first YIDFF in 1989, and his Amsterdam Global Village was invited to YIDFF ’97. We will screen van der Keuken’s posthumous work The Long Holiday. We present these screenings with deep respect and thoughts of remembrance.

In addition, we have special screenings of Frederick Wiseman’s new work Domestic Violence, and YIDFF ’99 chief juror Nelson Pereira dos Santos’ new work, The Masters and the Slaves, which tackles Brazilian history and culture.

This year’s special invitations also include Digital Short Films by Three Filmmakers, an omnibus work from three spirited filmmakers commissioned by the second Jeonju International Film Festival, held in Korea earlier this year, and a collection of trailers for film festivals around the world put together by Croatia’s Motovun Film Festival.