The Postwar Documentary Trace: Groping in the Dark
Abé Mark Nornes
The 1998 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival featured a
major retrospective of Japanese documentary films from the 1980s and 1990s.
This was the last installment in a biennial series that painstakingly covered
the one-hundred-year history of nonfiction filmmaking in Japan. Previ-
ous retrospectives confidently displayed a national heritage and its sure but
steady growth, but the title of the 1998 edition suggested a less than opti-
mistic attitude: “The Groping in the Dark: Japanese Documentary in the
1980s and Beyond” [“Nihon Dokyumentar no Mosaku: 1980 Nendai Ik ¯ o”].
Nowhere was the cautious uncertainty more evident than in the accompa-
nying symposium. On the stage were four filmmakers representing various
generations in Japanese film history. In the middle sat Kanai Katsu (who
started filming in the 1960s) and Ise Shin’ichi (from the 1980s). On either
end were Iizuka Toshio (1960s) and Kawase (Sent¯ o) Naomi (1990s).
1
Iizuka
served as assistant director to the late Ogawa Shinsuke from the 1960s until
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