japanese
2006-11-28 | The YAMAGATA Documentary Film Library Friday Theater (December–January)

Screenings at the Yamagata Documentary Film Library present documentaries and movies rarely shown on television or in theaters, including works from the Film Library vaults.

The YAMAGATA Documentary Film Library Friday Theater

Working Women in the 1960s
December 8 (Fri) 14:00, 19:00 (program screens twice)
A Voice In the City
USA / 1968 / 16mm / 30 min
Oshige-san
1960 / 16mm / 30 min

In the 1960s, a woman works in urban America as representative of a union that aims to improve working conditions, and Oshige-san improves life in Japanese farming villages. Working women are beautiful. (Cooperation: Tonan Murayama Audio-Visual Association)


Decisive Women *Please note the screening venue
December 22 (Fri) 14:00, 19:00 (screens twice)  [Venue] Yamagata City Gender Equality Center, Fala AV Room
Divorce Iranian Style
Dir: Kim Longinotto, Ziba Mir-Hosseini / UK, IRAN / 1998 / 16mm / 80 min / YIDFF ’99 International Competition, FIPRESCI Prize

Iran, where men have the freedom to divorce, but women lack this right. For a “wife” to file for divorce, she has to put her whole life on the line. The tragedy and comedy of divorce in the Islamic world.


Four Decades since the Struggle—Ogawa Shinsuke 1
January 12 (Fri) 14:00, 19:00 (screens twice)
The Oppressed Students (“Assatsu no mori”)
Dir: Ogawa Shinsuke / JAPAN / 1967 / 16mm / 105 min

Students respond to flagrant university oppression with a school-wide strike. Director Ogawa and the film crew shared time with the students as they completed this piece.


The Poet and the Farmer—Ogawa Shinsuke 2
January 26 (Fri) 14:00, 19:00 (program screens twice)
A Small Illusion (“Chiisana genei”)
JAPAN / 1957 / 16mm / 18min
Children Living in the Mountains (“Yama ni ikiru kora”)
JAPAN / 1958 / 16mm / 24 min
Magino Story: Pass (“Magino monogatari: Toge”)
Dir: Ogawa Shinsuke / JAPAN / 1977 / 16mm / 43 min

Yamagata poet Makabe Jin was known as ‘philosopher of the fields,’ and Ogawa Shinsuke made films while residing in Kaminoyama in Yamagata Prefecture. Magino Story: The Pass is an agricultural history of water and earth that depicts these two creators. The program also features two important short films from Ogawa’s days in the cinema club at Kokugakuin University. (Films provided by: Athenee Francais Cultural Center)


[Venue] The YAMAGATA Documentary Film Library (Yamagata Big Wing 3F)
December 22: Yamagata City Gender Equality Center, Fala Audio-Visual Room (Yamagata City’s General Welfare Center 5F)
[Admission] Free for Tomonokai members. (Membership fee: 1,000 yen for six months)
[Contact] phone: 023-666-4480 (YIDFF Yamagata office)