Kazuo Hara: An American Cinematheque Retrospective

ABOUT THE SERIES:

The American Cinematheque is honored to welcome Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara for an in-person retrospective as part of this year’s This Is Not a Fiction Festival, featuring the West Coast premiere of his most recent film, MINAMATA MANDALA.

Hara, along with his wife and producer Sachiko Kobayashi, has enlightened audiences for decades with radical documentaries that deconstruct and resist the constraints of postwar Japanese social structures. Hara’s work is a delicate balancing act that seethes with rage and righteous indignation, yet offers a compassionate view into the lives of outsiders and the most vulnerable communities abandoned by the prevailing Japanese establishment.

Kazuo Hara’s uncompromising activism and pursuit of justice persist throughout his oeuvre, with the most renowned example being THE EMPEROR’S NAKED ARMY MARCHES ON, a scathing indictment of the Japanese military and its perpetrators of wartime atrocities. The 1987 documentary continues to shock viewers as Hara’s unobtrusive camera follows Kenzo Okuzaki, a WWII veteran and anti-establishment crusader, who boldly confronts the Japanese officers he was stationed with in New Guinea during the war about the unsolved murders of two soldiers. There is a case to be made that Okuzaki may be one of the most memorable subjects in the history of documentary cinema, as his sheer fury manifests itself in occasional physical attacks on the former Japanese officers, and his unwavering determination to uncover the truth behind the murders evokes meditations on repressed trauma, guilt, obsession, and unmitigated obsequiousness.

MINAMATA MANDALA, a documentary shot over the course of fifteen years, observes a southern Japanese community afflicted with Minamata disease, a neurological disorder caused by mercury poisoning through the consumption of fish contaminated by industrial wastewater. The film provides a meticulous account of the legal struggles and the fight for reparations faced by the resilient citizens of Minamata. Hara’s documentary serves as a platform for the survivors, medical personnel, and researchers of the disease to assert their humanity in the face of indifference.

Hara’s fervent quest to give a voice to the voiceless continues with GOODBYE CP, which documents the experiences of a group of activists with cerebral palsy who courageously defy the preconceived notions thrust upon them by the able-bodied populace. As with his other films, Hara affirms a sense of agency with his subjects by allowing them to actively engage in the storytelling process, as the documentarian exposes the exasperating daily occurrences and confrontations they endure. The search for self-determination is also explored in Hara’s intensely personal film EXTREME PRIVATE EROS: LOVE SONG 1974, which centers around the aftermath of the disintegrated marriage between the director and Miyuki Takeda. The documentary explores the fine line between subject and filmmaker, with Hara admitting to making the project to maintain contact with his ex-wife. An intimate portrait of Takeda, a radical feminist, emerges with a focus on her exploration of personal and sexual liberation as she subverts traditional Japanese social standards, including becoming sexually involved with both men and women and raising a family as a single mother.