Presented By: Center for Japanese Studies
CJS Noon Lecture Series | The Uniqueness of Japanese Documentary Films: Focusing on the Minamata Series
Kenji Ishizaka, 2024–25 Toyota Visiting Professor, Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan
Please note: This lecture will be held in person in room 555 Weiser Hall and virtually via Zoom. This webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Once you've registered, the joining information will be sent to your email. Register for the Zoom webinar at: https://myumi.ch/DrnVx
Japanese documentary films have a unique style. Minamata disease, which spread from Minamata City on the west coast of Kyushu Island along with the economic growth of the 1950–60s, has given rise to many literary, theatrical and photographic works that sound the alarm for humanity, and in the field of cinema, Noriaki Tsuchimoto (1928–2008) continued to shoot the Minamata series over a period of 40 years. I would like to consider the relationship between the Minamata disease and art, including with the American film Minamata, in which Johnny Depp plays photographer Eugene Smith.
Kenji Ishizaka is the 2024-25 Toyota Visiting Professor, and is joining CJS from the Japan Institute of the Moving Image (JIMI), the first film university in Japan. He teaches about Asian film history, documentary film history, film distribution theory, and screening planning workshops, and serves as a provost and the director of the International Exchange Center at JIMI.
Born in 1960 in Tokyo, Kenji earned his MA degree from the graduate school of Waseda University. From 1990 to 2007, he was the Film Coordinator at the Japan Foundation and has organized more than seventy film events on Asian and Arab cinema. He has been in charge of the Asian film section of the Tokyo International Film Festival as a senior programmer since 2007, and spends his days watching many films made in a wide range of regions from East Asia to the Middle East. He frequently travels to Asian countries for research and to communicate with people involved in the film industry, and has served on the jury of international film festivals in Hawaii, Delhi, Busan, Bangkok, and other places.
This lecture is made possible with the generous support of the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at umcjs@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
Japanese documentary films have a unique style. Minamata disease, which spread from Minamata City on the west coast of Kyushu Island along with the economic growth of the 1950–60s, has given rise to many literary, theatrical and photographic works that sound the alarm for humanity, and in the field of cinema, Noriaki Tsuchimoto (1928–2008) continued to shoot the Minamata series over a period of 40 years. I would like to consider the relationship between the Minamata disease and art, including with the American film Minamata, in which Johnny Depp plays photographer Eugene Smith.
Kenji Ishizaka is the 2024-25 Toyota Visiting Professor, and is joining CJS from the Japan Institute of the Moving Image (JIMI), the first film university in Japan. He teaches about Asian film history, documentary film history, film distribution theory, and screening planning workshops, and serves as a provost and the director of the International Exchange Center at JIMI.
Born in 1960 in Tokyo, Kenji earned his MA degree from the graduate school of Waseda University. From 1990 to 2007, he was the Film Coordinator at the Japan Foundation and has organized more than seventy film events on Asian and Arab cinema. He has been in charge of the Asian film section of the Tokyo International Film Festival as a senior programmer since 2007, and spends his days watching many films made in a wide range of regions from East Asia to the Middle East. He frequently travels to Asian countries for research and to communicate with people involved in the film industry, and has served on the jury of international film festivals in Hawaii, Delhi, Busan, Bangkok, and other places.
This lecture is made possible with the generous support of the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at umcjs@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
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