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This film portrays three teachers with uncompromising principles, who stand up to protect freedom and democracy, fighting against increasing control and right-wing leanings at schools in Tokyo.

Short documentary on the making of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, included with the Limited Edition

Equipped with a cinema camera "RED WEAPON HELIUM 8K S35" and a high-performance camera anti-shake system "SHOTOVER F1" on an AS350B1 helicopter, we shot the glittering lights of the city in 8K60FPS from evening to night. In addition to high-precision and smooth movement, even small particles of light are expressed in rich colors by grading. Starting from Yokohama, where the twilight is beautiful, we introduce the bay area with the sky dyed in madder red and the silhouette of Mt. Fuji in the background.

A background study of a dying amusement culture, filmed in slovenly dressing rooms in front of badly polished make-up mirrors. – That’s how far editor Mary Stephen follows director Yoichiro Okutani’s montage interpretation of his own footage about the Japanese strippers called Odoriko. But Stephen’s editor’s cut begins fully dressed: a tastefully lit stage overture in costume, starting from which she rearranges or rather sheds the material, reintegrating image and sound sequences originally discarded by Okutani, for example the titular statement of an Odoriko explaining her choice of profession: “It was about being nude at heart.”

Yoshida is a “tears teacher.” A firm believer that weekly crying promotes healthier living, he’s made it his mission to make more people weep.

Sketch of a Spring weekend afternoon in the Demachiyanagi area of Kyoto, exploring literal and figurative time distortions. Filmed on a single reel of 30 year old Kodachrome, it was processed in a home-made soup of instant coffee, vitamin C, and soda.

2017 / Japan / color / stereo / a film by Shuhei Hatano. 1 minute documentary. You can't see them from the city side, you can only see them from the river side. Located in Arakawa, Tokyo, Japan.

Hayashi Fujio, a 90-year-old veteran, narrates his memories from World War II, when he volunteered for the very first kamikaze operation planned by the Japanese Imperial Army.

A couple and the husband’s mother have been living away from the town of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture since they were evacuated after the nuclear accident. As they make the decision to build a new house, their feelings as husband and wife, parent and child, and daughter-in-law and mother-in-law intersect. The film depicts their emotional struggle to live as their true selves, amidst elderly caregiving of the elderly and complex family relationships—issues brought to the surface by the disaster.

The Shiretoko National Park, on the northern tip of the Japanese peninsular, is a little-known paradise for wild animals and birds. Deservedly designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park’s stunning biodiversity relies on the delicate balance of the changing seasons, and the drifting pack ice that descends in winter. Hundreds of brown bears roam through the park in autumn, gathering on the riverbanks to catch migrating salmon. Winter brings freezing temperatures and the return of Stellar Sea Eagles from Russia, who dive between the few remaining gaps of the pack ice to catch fish, as deceptively angelic sea snails hunt their prey. When the ice melts in spring, herring feed on the blooming plankton, enticing shearwater seabirds from Australia, fin whales, and orcas. With climate change altering the natural habitat of these creatures, what will become of Japan’s biodiversity hotspot?

Having received a good response to Impressions of the Sunset, he continued to develop his filmmaking expressed from an everyday perspective, and carried his camera everywhere to shoot whatever was around him. Composing the work in four parts, he reflects on his mental states in a narration that resembles audio commentary. As he films the filmmaker loses motivation to film, and realizing that he is deadlocked in his own life decides to quit his job. The act of filming changes both the filmmaker’s understanding and the practical aspects of his life.

Japan tackles traditional values to deal with a labour shortage, sparked by rapidly decreasing birth rates and an ageing society.

A document of the Nihon Gen'yasai Sanrizuka, a two-day experimental festival held in support of the Narita Airport Struggle, in 1971.

Documentary following "I'm home, a place for everyone"

The play "Classroom" is being performed at SNAC, a small theatre. A camera on the sidewalk outside captures the sound of the play emanating from the theatre, and the people who pass by.

A medical perspective of Minamata disease in three parts - 1) Progress of Research; 2) Pathology and Symptoms; 3) Clinical Field Trials

Recurring recollections of his time in a town started infiltrating the dreams of a photographer, pushing him to return to the dream and leaving reality.

A film by Shuhei Hatano / music by Katsuaki Maegaki / Produced by Santana, Cotoya Zakka. Was our youth a ghost?

Personal documentary from director Kana Tomoko, who has covered environmental issues and people suffering misfortune in films like Beautiful Islands. This film documents the pregnancy she discovered immediately after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and follows her experiences until the baby's birth. In the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Kana was 4 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant documenting the people who were forced to evacuate because of the nuclear power plant accident. Then, she discovers that she is pregnant. Her first pregnancy at the age of forty takes her by surprise, and she worries about the impact of radiation on her unborn child.

Video work by Takashi Homma - animals gather around the entrails of a deer on top of a snowy mountain

About Japanese shota comics and the people who read, draw and love them.

Cameraman Yonesaku Kobayashi (1905-2005) is a pioneer of scientific films of Japan. He and producer Sozo Okada made many scientific educational films, and in 60's - 70's, many avant-garde composers composed music for these films.

Kids' Festival! All the Heroes of Justice Appear was a televised celebration of tokusatsu heroes in 1976.

In his darkened apartment the poet, translator, and lyricist discusses his work and his "art of being alone". In the words of Tanikawa: "If there is love, there is nothing more to say...".

Branching Paths is a mosaic of the developers, publishers and people who gravitate to indie games in Japan.

A compilation of violent and graphic video and news footage.

Sakubei Yamamoto (1892–1984) was a lifelong miner in the Chikuho coalfield in southern Japan. In his mid-60s, he began to paint a documentary record of work and daily life in and around the coal mines.

Filled with interviews with the production team, the featurette covers the story's development, the film's style and look, and even has the original Japanese teaser.

The daily life of the citizens of Kabul during the civil war: the bazaar, mosques, the literacy movement awarded honors by UNESCO, women's education, and English school. Scenes of live and self-defense in nearby farm villages. The lives of war orphans. And a new holiday-the anniversary of the revolution, seen in the faces of the 200,000 people gathered to celebrate. This is a document of the only "democratic republic" in the West.

just one of those things is part of a new series of work made at the relaunch of High Heel Project in 2022. Katayama layers cut-out legs and high heels on top of her self-portrait, animating them to create a moving collage. She comments, 'The most important thing is not that everyone should wear high heels, but that, first and foremost, we should have the freedom to say what we want and what we don't want. With the goal of freedom of choice open to all, I must continue to walk and speak up wearing symbolic and extreme high heels:

A documentary about Tadashi Hase, a gay poet born in 1929, who spent much of his life closeted due to homosexuality being classified as a "mental illness." Despite these challenges, he became an award-winning poet and continues to work at 94. Only later in life, as societal attitudes shifted, did he come out. Through Hase’s journey, the film explores the history of homosexuality in Japan.

Boarding for the island of Shikoku in southern Japan, in the footsteps of the pilgrimage of the great Kobo-Daishi. Shot in POV, the film engages the viewer in a mystical odyssey.

A political film written by statesman Shimpei Goto advocating for universal suffrage.

Ostensibly searching for an emotional connection with her aging father, the woman contemplates her own inherited culture and familial touchstones. Her North American pop culture sensibility fuses with a distorted Japanese perspective to create a surreal interpretation of a “Japan of the imagination.” This fictional landscape is peppered with invented Japanese myths, ruminations on memory loss, the temporal space of digital photography and the ghosts of inherited imagination.

The clear record of a zoo's daily workings and the hardships of zookeepers.

Punk rock documentary

Documentary about stage actor Izumi Aoyagi

The Japanese Government-General of Joseon designated ‘Patriots Day’ in September 1937, requiring all citizens to visit the Joseon Shrine on the first day of every month, raise the Japanese flag, clean up their neighborhoods, offer silent tributes, and practice the Gymnastics for the Imperial Subjects. The Government-General awarded medals to loyal citizens for exemplary achievement of these tasks. In particular, on the day of Patriots Day, all people had to stop what they were doing and pay their respects on the spot following the time signal. A woman washing clothes, elderly people ice fishing, and factory workers; men and women of all ages pay tribute in silence at the time signal, which makes for stirring cinema. Although the film was made to promote Patriots Day, the villagers' various community activities such as the rice-saving movement, the waste collection campaign, and collaborative farming are presented in a peaceful fashion. Acquired in 2006.

The narratives of Filipinos and Japanese soldiers who lived through the Japanese Occupation trace the destructive effects of the war that lasted decades after.

This film documents an aimless walk through one of Kyoto's former outcaste neighbourhoods, which continues to exist below normal Japanese living standards. Despite pro-active legislation, people from families associated with such areas can experience discrimination. The soundtrack was created using a self-built apparatus we call "The Octopus". Voltages from light sensors on the projection screen control an analogue modular synthesizer allowing the film itself to act as a score. Soundtrack created in collaboration with Malte Steiner.

Documentary about a prefectural referendum on whether or not to restart nuclear power stations. The film shows people engaging in dialogue and calling for the importance of thinking about politics for themselves, and captures a picture of contemporary Japanese politics that we should not turn our eyes away from.

This short film documents a walk to the Shirakawa canal in Kyoto during the cherry blossom season. The soundtrack was created using an original apparatus called ‘The Octopus’. Voltages from light sensors on the projection screen control an analogue modular synthesizer. The film itself acts as a score. Soundtrack created in collaboration with Palle Dahlstedt.

From his famous "Lolicon" motifs to the scatological, perverse and explicit, Aida has left a distinct mark on the contemporary art world. This film follows him from July 2009 to May 2010 as he paints and moves between the venues showing his work, including San Francisco, Beijing and Japan. It depicts a brutally honest portrait of the artist and the film was completed without the consent of its subject.

"HARUKO" is a documentary tracing the life of Haruko Kim, a Korean woman who migrated from poverty-stricken Cheju Island to Japan during the colonial era. Through rare archival footage shot by her son, a cameraman for a pro-North Korean organization in Japan, the film captures the struggles of three generations adapting to life in a foreign land. Set against the backdrop of Shinjuku's transformation from slum to entertainment hub, it reveals the harsh realities faced by Zainichi Koreans. Haruko, portrayed with raw honesty, resorts to illegal means to support her family, enduring multiple arrests in her fight to survive.

The short history of a room and the fiction born in it.

Documentary recording the devastation of the 1923 Kanto earthquake and subsequent relief efforts and reconstruction. Re-released by the Kanto Earthquake Digital Image Archive in 2021.

A documentary about the director's family and his struggles as a filmmaker.