SANRIZUKA - HETA VILLAGE at Japan Society this Saturday evening

Japan Society NY

presents

Image © Athénée Français Cultural Center

Sanrizuka – Heta Village / Sanrizuka Heta Buraku

Directed by Shinsuke Ogawa

Japan, 1973, 146 minutes

Digital, b&w

In Japanese with English subtitles

When: Saturday, November 11, 2017 at 7:00 pm

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC

Map

Tickets: $13/$10 seniors and students/$5 Japan Society members

“The first of two masterpieces by Ogawa Productions” - Markus Nornes, author of Forest of Pressure: Ogawa Shinsuke and Postwar Japanese Documentary (University of Minnesota Press, 2006)

In the summer of 1968, Ogawa Productions, led by visionary filmmaker Shinsuke Ogawa, entrenched themselves in the middle of the site of violent conflict wherein ongoing resistance to the construction of the Narita International Airport was demonstrated by local farmers, activists and students. Committing their lives to documenting the farmers’ struggle, the collective produced their most famous series of seven films known as the “Sanrizuka Series.” Amidst increasing police violence and tragedy, this meditative sixth film in the series focuses on life in Heta village itself, documenting its customs and people through eleven quiet scenes that convey deep empathy for the villagers and their experiences.

Related Screening: Barbara Hammer’s Devotion: A Film About Ogawa Productions (Saturday, November 11th at 4:00 PM)

DEVOTION: A FILM ABOUT OGAWA PRODUCTIONS at Japan Society this Saturday, November 11th

Japan Society NY
presents

(c) Barbara Hammer, Devotion (still), 2000. Courtesy of Barbara Hammer

Devotion: A Film About Ogawa Productions

Directed by Barbara Hammer

Japan/USA, 2000, 84 minutes

Digital, color

In Japanese with English subtitles

When: Saturday, November 11, 2017 at 4:00 PM

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC

Map

Tickets: $13/$10 seniors & students/$9 Japan Society members

Introduction and Q&A with director Barbara Hammer

moderated by documentary filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda

Lesbian feminist artist and filmmaker Barbara Hammer (whose life work is currently being celebrated throughout New York City) screens her documentary about the influential and controversial Japanese filmmaking collective Ogawa Productions that most famously made films about the lives of farmers who stood in direct opposition to the construction of Narita International Airport on their land. Shot shortly after the death of the influential founding filmmaker Shinsuke Ogawa, this probing documentary utilizes archival material and firsthand interviews with Ogawa’s closest collaborators to parse out the complex, fascinating inner workings of one of Japanese cinema’s most uncompromising film movements.

"My film came alive when I interviewed the previously unheard voices of the few women that were in the collective and who had been relegated to the kitchen during their life in the commune." - Barbara Hammer, Hammer! Making Movies out of Sex and Life (The Feminist Press, The City University of New York, 2010).

This screening is co-organized with Carmel Curtis and Staci Bu Shea, curators of Barbara Hammer: Evidentiary Bodies at the Leslie Lohman Museum for Gay & Lesbian Art on exhibition from October 7, 2017 – January 28, 2018.

At 7:00 PM in Saturday, there will be a separate showing at Japan Society of SANRIZUKA - HETA VILLAGE, a documentary from Ogawa Productions.