薩チャン 正ちゃん　～戦後民主的独立プロ奮闘記～

After the war, many filmmakers were expelled from the Japanese film industry due to the Toho Dispute and the Red Purge. Amid such circumstances, there were people who set up their own independent production companies and embarked on film production without relying on corporations. This documentary film focuses on the passionate "spirit of film" of directors such as Satsuo Yamamoto and Tadashi Imai, who, despite many hardships, produced a succession of masterpieces overflowing with humanism and rebellious spirit.

The Erotic Empire

A short documentary primarily focused on Nikkatsu's Roman Porno series.

石井輝男 FAN CLUB

A documentary on Teruo Ishii, the Japanese "King of Cult".

生誕100年 映畫監督成瀨巳喜男展

Because his style was similar to that of Yasujiro Ozu, who was already active at Shochiku, he moved to PCL (currently Toho) in 1933, where he appeared in the talkie works "My Wife, Like a Rose" and "Tsuruhachi Tsurujiro." It got attention. There were times when he was unable to make as many films as he wanted due to wartime film regulations and post-war Toho disputes, but in 1951 he revived his career with Meshi. Since then, he has released masterpieces one after another, including "Okaasan," "Lightning," "The Couple," "Wife," "Anii Mouto," "Sounds of the Mountain," and "Bangiku." The pinnacle of his work, "Floating Clouds," is Kenji Mizoguchi's "Wife." Even director Ozu was impressed, calling it a masterpiece of Japanese cinema, on par with "The Sisters of Gion." He depicted ordinary people in everyday life with an everyday realism that was not influenced by lyricism, and he consistently sought out women as his subjects.

A. K.

An intimate chronicle of the shooting of Ran (1985), a film directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.

“樹木希林”を生きる

This documentary follows the last days of actress KIKI Kirin, who passed away on September 15, 2018. The documentary is the first long-term, in-depth coverage of Ki-kin, and is a re-edited version of the NHK documentary of the same title that was broadcast on September 26, 2006, adding previously unseen footage. She was loved all over Japan for her blunt remarks, her attentive concern for those around her, and her overflowing sense of humor. Despite her busy schedule, she valued her daily life and had her own unique style, even though she talked about life as it came. This film captures the last days of her life and gives us hints for living from her "life as it comes" and her many inspiring words.

Seijun Suzuki: kabuki & yakuzas

Film director and screenwriter Seijun Suzuki (1923-2017), who in the sixties was the great innovator of Japanese cinema; and his collaborator, art director and screenwriter Takeo Kimura (1918-2010), recall how they made their great masterpieces about the Yakuza underworld for the Nikkatsu film company.

健さん

KEN SAN pieces together the puzzle of the life and legacy of Japan's mythical acting icon, Ken Takakura. Collaborators, friends and family tell intimate stories of Ken's journey: how one man of quiet dignity became a cultural barrier-breaking film star.

三文役者

The film is a series of vignettes from Taiji Tonoyama's life and film clips, interspersed with a dialogue to camera by Nobuko Otowa, addressing the camera as if she is addressing Tonoyama himself, recollecting events in his life. The film focuses on Tonoyama's alcohol dependence and his various sexual relationships, as well as his film work with Shindo.

山中貞雄に捧げる漫画映画『鼠小僧次郎吉』

Legendary anime director Rintaro’s (Metropolis, X/1999, Galaxy Express 999) first new work in over a decade depicts pioneering 1930s director Sadao Yamanaka and the production of his Nezumikozo Jirokichi. Despite dying before the age of 30, Yamanaka was a pivotal influence in Japanese cinema whose work would go on to inspire future generations. While most of his films have been lost to time, his scripts remain, and Nezumikozo Jirokichi recreates one of these lost films—a tale of a famous, virtuous bandit in old Edo—as imagined by Rintaro together with an all-star team including Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Memories), Taro Maki (Pluto, Millennium Actress) and Masao Maruyama (Ninja Scroll, Perfect Blue).

赤い陰影

Keichi Tanaamis new animation work Red Shade (2021) is based on paintings that he had produced on the premise that they will be set in motion. Each of the 80 selected scenes was given a distinct movement of its own, and the edited version of the completed work became the first film. The 80 scenes are each independently complete, and can be freely rearranged. For example, you can start from scent 80 and end in scene one, or arrange them irregularly like 1, 4, 8, 7, and so on. In other words, the essence of the work does not change no matter how the scenes are arranged. Even so, it is possible to produce a strong impact by exchanging the images for each frame, and one can also for instance, create an impression of a refreshing breeze sweeping through the green meadows.

El Salvador - The Road to Bitcoin

In September 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.

Gorongosa: Paradise Reborn

Gorongosa National Park was known as Africa's Eden, but war almost destroyed it. Now, it's home to the greatest wildlife restoration in history.

Frenchball - Le Coup D'Envoi

Casi todo sucede en los sueños

The axis of the film is the construction of memory: where, finally, are the memories lodged? From that interrogation, the director and protagonist assembles and disassembles a story where his children and his father appear to confirm that his memory is also the memory of a descendant that does not forget the past. (Marcela Gamberini)

Sonst ist auch das Ende verdorben

Hamburg, May 1945, English troops occupy the city. The gates of the concentration camps open. The Germans speak of collapse and take care of everyday life. Only a few feel liberated and think of a new beginning. At the end there is a poem by Ingeborg Bachmann: We'll end the rut, otherwise the end will be spoiled.

Retrograde

The story of the last months of the 20-year war in Afghanistan through the intimate relationship between American Green Berets and the Afghan officers they trained.

The Corridors of Power

How do the well-meaning and highly educated men and women of America’s foreign policy elite, dreaming of doing good in the world, so often find themselves presiding over disastrous wars and genocides? Master filmmaker Dror Moreh takes us deep inside the three decades of American foreign policy since the fall of the Berlin Wall, a period of almost constant war and mass killing

The End of the World

What was going on at Bennington College in the 1980s? Matthew Tyrnauer reveals the not-so-secret history of a small (enrollment: 700) liberal arts school that nurtured a shocking amount of genius. Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho), Donna Tartt (The Goldfinch), and Jonathan Lethem (The Fortress of Solitude) were standouts amongst many young creatives, who found plenty of inspiration and material within the messy realities of this collegiate petri dish.

The Future Tense

Staged as a series of voiceover sessions, written with gloriously off-balanced precision and dipped in the color green, THE FUTURE TENSE unfolds as a poignant tale of tales, exploring the filmmakers’ own experiences in aging, parenting, mental illness, along with the brutal history that lies submerged beneath Ireland’s heavy, moist earth.