> YIDFF 2025

Yamagata and Film

[Venues] F1 F3 Forum Yamagata 1, 3, Q1 Yamagata Creative City Center Q1 2-B, Former Yoshiike Clinic

Introducing films related to Yamagata, this program unpacks the rich and diverse film culture and history rooted in our prefecture, deepening our understanding of the region’s cinematic legacy.

A Movie Capital 2025 Project

The very first Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival took place in 1989. The 1991 documentary A Movie Capital captured its making, but one story was left on the editing floor—the spirited efforts of local volunteers, the “YIDFF Network,” who rallied behind the festival. Today, a legendary 4.5-hour rough cut featuring this theme is revived in high quality, thanks to the digital restoration of 13 hours of unused footage. Also premiering: Mirror Works ’89, a new film using enhanced Hi-8 video footage of Ogawa Shinsuke, Tamura Masaki, and colleagues at work in the AZ Central Public Hall, testing special effects techniques for additional filming. A post-screening talk and related exhibits at the former Yoshiike Clinic round out the program.

A Movie Capital
Dir: Iizuka Toshio / 1991 / 98 min   • Oct. 15 F5
Mirror Works ’89: Yamagata Central Public Hall
Composed by Oe Yuta / 2025 / 28 min   • Oct. 15 F5
Feb 11, 1990 Rough Cut Screening: The Other Version
1991 / 247 min   • Oct. 14 Q1

Exhibition: A Movie Capital Reading Library   • Oct. 11–13 Former Yoshiike Clinic
Event: Watch party: Outtakes from A Movie Capital   • Oct. 12, 13 Former Yoshiike Clinic

Taiwanese & Japanese Home Movies: Small Film, Vast Universe

Co-organized by Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI)
Home movies are films taken of, by, and for one’s family. This screening presents small gauge films from Taiwan and Japan, where amateur movie makers have filmed their families with an affectionate gaze. This collection of invaluable footage reconstructs the former Yoshiike Clinic built in 1912, the first year of the Taisho era, and was taken by individuals such as a Taiwanese doctor during the Japanese colonial period, a Taiwanese photographer after the war, the head of a sake brewery in Sakata City, and the owner of a clock shop in Yamagata City. Through commentary during the screenings, this event unravels the hidden potential of home movies as a “tool for dialogue” that connects people across time and place.

Taiwanese Home Movies with commentary and talk by Su Ui-tiok / Approx. 90min
9.5mm film (1935–1943) by Ting Ray-yü , 8mm film (1960s) by Hsu Tsang-tse   • Oct. 10, 11 Former Yoshiike Clinic
Japanese Home Movies with commentary and talk by the film holder / Approx. 90min
8mm and 16mm films (1935–1956) by Sato Kyukichi, 8mm film (1955–1970) by Masuya Jiro   • Oct. 10, 11 Former Yoshiike Clinic
Return: Yamagata × Hualien 1960s with music by Lim Giong / In Cooperation with Hualien Film Center   • Oct. 11 Former Yoshiike Clinic

Exhibition: Try an 8mm Film Projector!   • Oct. 10, 11 Former Yoshiike Clinic

TV Documentaries produced by Local Yamagata TV station (with no English subtitles)

A special series to watch documentaries produced by Yamagata TV stations on the big screen. Usually, documentaries from one station are introduced at the Film Library’s Friday screenings, but this time, a special edition for the film festival! We will screen documentaries from four Yamagata TV stations all at once! We will share the experience of directly engaging with the programs as they are projected large on the cinema screen.

YBC   • Oct. 10 F1
The Three Shonais—The Land of Dreams for Outsiders
Dekunobo—War and PTSD
YTS   • Oct. 11 F1
“150 Years of Cherry Cultivation”: The Ruby-like Treasures That Connect with the Future
Do We Go Against the Times? The Two “Nohs” of Kurokawa
TUY   • Oct. 12 F1
A Natural Look—900 Days with a “Gal” in a Wheelchair
In Love with Baseball! Another Story—1100 Days with the Seizan High School Girl’s Hardball Baseball Club
SAY   • Oct. 14 F1
45 Years of Overtures—Challenges of the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra
The Ruptured Railway—The Resolution Needed to Restore the Yonesaka Line

Screening: Kids Film Workshop

Co-organized by ESTEM
Supported by Tohoku Regional Advancement Center   • Oct. 13 F1

Yamagata and Film Special Screening

Madame soie Cévennes
Dir: Sato Koichi / JAPAN, FRANCE / 2025 / 87 min   • Oct. 13 CL

Legendary Cévennes silk, said to have been beloved by Marie Antoinette. Called the most beautiful silk in the world, of a divinely white color, it has been passed down through generations in France as part of its textile heritage. Now, three centuries later, it has been revived in Japan. Over the course of three years, we documented the efforts of sericulturists, weavers, dyers, and scholars of Japanese-French history working at the forefront of the silk industry to carry this tradition and its techniques into the future. This film comprehensively documents the heretofore unseen skill of artisans’ handiwork, and the exhilarating colors of dyes drawn from natural materials.

The Former Yoshiike Clinic
An old-fashioned Western-style building located in the city center of Yamagata. It was completed in 1912 and was designed by architect Chujo Seiichiro, who also designed the Bunshokan (the former Yamagata prefectural office building). The 113-year-old venue will host the “Yamagata and Film” program and exhibition as well as other screenings, exhibitions and talk events, including Yano Kazuyuki Memorial, Cityscapes Brought Back through Glass Dry Plate Photographs, Hikari no Seiso, Modernization Heritage of Yamagata, Song of the Craftsmen: Documenting the Restoration of the Former Yamagata Prefectural Office, an Important Cultural Property, The Man Who Saw Yokai: The World of Ito Chuta, a Giant of Modern Architecture.