NEWSWORTHY
Filmmaker makes her case for a nuclear phase-out in latest documentary
Masako Sakata, an award-winning Japanese documentary film director, took the long route to answer a gnawing question: How is it that Japan is still wedded to atomic power while Germany decided to phase out its nuclear plants by 2022 in the wake of the ...
Soundtracking the thrill of the climb in Jennifer Peedom's 'Mountain'
With "Mountain," director Jennifer Peedom has done for the mountaineering film what Marks & Spencer's did for food advertisements years ago: taken the concept and beautified it to such an extent that it provokes a visceral response. Salivating over the movie's visual perfection is ...
When filmmaker Marina Zenovich sought to make a documentary about Robin Williams, she found that she could do it largely in the late comedian's own voice. "Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind," uses a wealth of archival footage to put viewers inside his thought process ...
Filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda visits the stadium that's home to all of America
"The Big House" captures more than just football in a documentary about the University of Michigan's main stadium.
'The Shoot Must Go On': Masayoshi Sukita captures some of rock music's most iconic figures
Even if you don't recognize the name, you probably know his shots. Photographer Masayoshi Sukita has captured images of rock gods and movie stars that deserve that most overused of epithets: iconic. There's Marc Bolan, face creased in orgasmic bliss and hair billowing behind him ...
Speaking as a Japanese person, it's a bit disheartening to see the words "samurai" and "idiot" in the same sentence. Filmmaker Hyoe Yamamoto's documentary "Samurai and Idiots: The Olympus Affair" not only pairs the two, it shows the lack of logic and wisdom behind ...
Documentary to chronicle Kumamoto village's travails recovering from 2016 quakes
A filmmaker is working on a documentary about people fighting to rebuild their community following the powerful earthquakes in Kumamoto Prefecture two years ago. "I want to pass on to future generations the efforts by the local people who are struggling to move forward," says ...
Documentary takes a look at friendship in the aftermath of wrongful imprisonment
Kim Sung-woong, a documentary film director, says he listened with awe as he heard remarks by a man who was falsely accused in a high-profile murder case. The previously condemned man had an air of positivity that was surprising considering he'd spent a good chunk ...
'Tremorings of Hope': The aftershocks linger in a town devastated by 2011 disaster
After the Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011, dozens of documentary filmmakers headed north to the devastated Tohoku region, specifically the hard-hit coastal areas of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures. One filmmaker, however, had already been filming there ...
Kazuo Hara returns to form as a documentary filmmaker with 'Sennan Asbestos Disaster'
Kazuo Hara became famous — some would say notorious — for the documentaries he made about individuals who defied Japanese social norms and laws. One such individual was Kenzo Okuzaki, the subject of Hara's 1987 film "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On." A veteran of ...
Filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda doesn't underestimate the power of observation
In late 1992, Kazuhiro Soda was attending a "company information session" in Tokyo, where young students about to graduate from university were introduced to various companies as prospective recruits. "I looked around and saw of a sea of young Japanese, all wearing the same black ...
Getting close to Ryuichi Sakamoto
Stephen Nomura Schible refrains from saying whether he and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto are friends, or even close, despite having filmed a documentary about him. "When I'm in the U.S., everyone refers to him by his first name, but in my mind and when I'm in ...
