| 2022-12-13 | | | Remembering Takahashi Takuya |
Former YIDFF Director and board member Takahashi Takuya passed away on October 15, 2022. The festival team would like express our sincere condolences and convey sympathy to everyone who knew him.
Takahashi-san was a key member of the volunteer citizens’ group that was established at the first edition of the festival and worked passionately to make the event a success. He was Yamagata Office Director and central to leading the organization from 2007, when the festival left the city government and became an independent non-profit, to 2018. In recent years he was an active producer of films made in Yamagata. His passing came suddenly in the midst of promoting a new film about the local safflower culture, and starting research on his next film project.
Nearly 300 people from across Japan gathered together in Yamagata City on Nov 20 for a commemoration. The much-loved person and his immense contribution to culture will remain in our minds and hearts.