Devotion: A Film About Ogawa Productions

Lesbian feminist artist and filmmaker Barbara Hammer (whose life work is currently being celebrated throughout New York City) visits Japan Society for a screening of her film about the influential and controversial Japanese documentary collective Ogawa Productions that most famously made films about the lives of farmers who stood in direct opposition to the construction of Narita International Airport on their land. Shot shortly after the death of the influential founding filmmaker Shinsuke Ogawa, this probing documentary utilizes archival material and firsthand interviews with Ogawa’s closest collaborators to parse out the complex, fascinating inner workings of one of Japanese cinema’s most uncompromising film movements.

Followed by a Q&A moderated by documentary filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda.

“My film came alive when I interviewed the previously unheard voices of the few women that were in the collective and who had been relegated to the kitchen during their life in the commune.” - Barbara Hammer, Hammer! Making Movies out of Sex and Life (The Feminist Press, The City University of New York, 2010). 2000, 84 min., digital, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Barbara Hammer. Tickets: $13/$10 seniors & students/$9 Japan Society members