"JPEX: Japanese Experimental Film and Video, 1955–Now"

DATE:	Tuesday, October 19, 2004 Tuesday, October 26, 2004
TIME:	7:30 p.m.
PLACE:	Pacific Film Archive Theater
FORMAT:	Film screenings
SPONSOR:	Pacific Film Archive; Image Forum Archive; University of California, Irvine; University of Chicago; Center for Japanese Studies; Institute for East Asian Studies

The playful insistence and explosive subversion of Japanese experimental film traditions remain neglected terrain for North American audiences. In an effort to globalize what has often been a primarily Western understanding of postwar experimentalism, JPEX: Japanese Experimental Film and Video, 1955–Now, touring North America this autumn, documents the radical medium of postwar Japanese experimental film, video, and animation at its fiftieth anniversary. PFA is screening two programs from the JPEX series.

Prior to each screening, the JPEX curators will discuss the films from a historical and formal perspective. Full program information will be available at the screenings. Also visit http://www.humanities.uci.edu/ jpex/.

Schedule of Films

For information on ticket sales, please call 510.642.1412 or visit http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/ pfa_programs/; for advance tickets (charge-by-phone), call 510.642.5249.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

7:30 p.m.

Expanded Visions

Introduced by Jonathan M. Hall and Michelle Puetz

From pioneering artists like Takashi Ito to the powerful work of feminist filmmaker Mako Idemitsu and emerging contemporary artists, this evening of Japanese experimental film from the 1970s to the present is certain to broaden our (mostly Western) understanding of "expanded cinema."

The extraordinary canon of mid-century Japanese formal experimentation, comprising well-recognized experimentalists such as Takashi Ito, Toshio Matsumoto, Takashi Nakajima, Jun'ichi Okuyama, and Hiroshi Yamazaki, is expanded and enriched in the light of the powerful and pioneering work of feminist filmmaker Mako Idemitsu, animator Keiichi Tanaami, and contemporary contributors to formal play. Collectively, these filmmakers probe the possibilities of cinematic representation, perception, linear temporality, repetition, sensory overload, forgetfulness, and delusive madness. This program makes evident a rich international dialogue between Japanese and European and American filmmakers associated with the expanded cinema and structural film movements, a daring use of sound that questions the primacy of image, and a brilliance of imagination that transforms economic and technological scarcity into visual genius.

Shiki Zoku Ze Ku (Toshio Matsumoto, 1975, 8 mins, Color, 16mm). At Santa Monica 1 (Mako Idemitsu, 1974, 6 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artist). Le Cinema (Jun'ichi Okuyama, 1975, 5 mins, B&W, 16mm). Snarl-Up!!! (Akio Okamoto, 2001, 8 mins, Color, Video). Heliography (Hiroshi Yamazaki, 1979, 6 mins, Silent, Color, 16mm). Cessna (Takashi Nakajima, 1974, 20 mins, Silent, Color, 8mm on video). Atman (Toshio Matsumoto, 1975, 11 mins, Color, 16mm). At Yukigawa 2 (Mako Idemitsu, 1974, 10 mins, B&W, 16mm, From the artist). Spacy (Takashi Ito, 1981, 10 mins, Color/B&W, 16mm). Observation (Hiroshi Yamazaki, 1975, 10 mins, Silent, B&W, 16mm). My Movie Melodies (Jun'ichi Okuyama, 1980, 6 mins, B&W, 16mm). Why? Remix (Keiichi Tanaami, 2002, 10 mins, Color, Video).

(Total running time: 110 mins plus discussion, From Image Forum except as otherwise noted)

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

7:30 p.m.

Exploded States: War, Politics, and National Identity

Introduced by Jonathan M. Hall

Tonight's films exhibit a delightful irony and playful insubordination to state, collective, and perspectival authority. In works like Shuji Terayama's Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Japanese avant-garde cinema intersects with experimental theater and avant-garde performance.

The importance of political and social critique for postwar Japanese experimentation is made apparent in these works. Here, Japanese experimental film and video comes to its closest intersection with experimental theater and avant-garde performance. Viewed together, works by Eiko Hosoe, Nobuhiro Kawanaka, and Shuji Terayama, among others, exhibit a delightful irony and playful insubordination to state, collective, and perspectival authority. The importance of impromptu, yet highly theorized, performance for the camera, sometimes involving a camp surrealism, initiates a multimedia resistance to conventional representations. The films draw from and contribute to "happenings" staged by avant-gardists in the High-Red-Center group, an intercontinental Fluxus movement, and Tatsumi Hijikata's butoh dance.

God Bless America (Tadasu Takamine, 2002, 9 mins, Color, Video, From the artist). X (Batsu) (Shuntaro Tanikawa, Toru Takemitsu, 1960, 15 mins, Silent, B&W, 16mm). 8 (Eiko Hosoe, 1960, 12 mins, In Japanese with English subtitles, B&W, 16mm). White Hole (Toshio Matsumoto, 1976, 7 mins, Color, 16mm). Switchback (Nobuhiro Kawanaka, 1976, 9 mins, Color/B&W, 16mm). Yoshikei (Keiichi Tanaami, 1979, 12 mins, Color, 16mm). Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Shuji Terayama, 1970, 25 mins, In Japanese, Color/B&W, 16mm).

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Curated/Notes by Jonathan M. Hall and Michelle Puetz

Jonathan M. Hall is assistant professor of comparative literature at UCIrvine, where he researches and teaches critical theories of East Asia, Japanese film and modern literature, and queer theory.

Michelle Puetz is a Ph.D. candidate in the Committee on Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago.

These programs have been made possible with the generous support of Image Forum Archive; University of California, Irvine; and University of Chicago. With thanks to Center for Japanese Studies and Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley, and to Miryam Sas.