There is no film festival in Japan quite like the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF).
Going against the current of easy entertainment and mind-numbing CGI, the festival is a solid, seriously cinematic event held in Yamagata every two years. From its inception in 1989, YIDFF has dedicated itself wholly to challenging documentaries from Japan and around the world.
In the year following each YIDFF, the festival travels to Tokyo. This year it will run through Dec. 19 at K's cinema in Shinjuku, with a selection of films also being shown at Josai International University's Kioicho Campus on Nov. 28-29. The event, titled "Documentary Dream Show," is a welcome opportunity for Tokyoites to sample some stimulating documentaries from emerging and established talent, all dealing with the rather convoluted theme of "Playing with Memory and Reality — Toward the Ocean of Documentary."