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A historical film that portrays the fervent and violent actions of young Army and Navy officers, such as the February 26 and May 15 incidents, in a semi-documentary style.

8mm amateur documentary that retraces the history of Kurume Kasuri, a type of textile that is produced through more than 30 highly specialised processes, from pattern design, thread tying, to dyeing and weaving. Filmed under the guidance of artisans Kazutoshi Hatae and Naotsugu Tsukamoto, the work meticulously documents each stage of production, standing as a valuable record of these unique techniques.

About the way of life in the East, in China, during the months before spring. An early spring.

The film documents an excavation in 1953 of a large kofun (burial mound) near Yuuka village (in present day Misaki) in Okayama prefecture. Under the guidance of researchers at Okayama University nearly 10,000 locals participated in the undertaking and was hailed as archaeology/history "by the people." It is considered one the most significant documentary films of the postwar period in Japan.

The film introduces the famous national model worker, textile worker Huang Baomei, who is played by the real Huang Baomei herself.

On October 12, 1956, 53 surveyors and 1,300 armed police rushed the gathered union and Zen Gaku Ren (the All Japan Federation of Self-Governing Students Associations) members who then formed a scrum to protect themselves. 278 people from both sides were injured. On the 13th, at the protest’s peak, 5,000 workers and Zen Gaku Ren members had been mobilized when the police attacked the demonstrators’ picket lines. 844 protesters and 80 police were injured. Public opinion erupted against the the violence of the armed police and the government’s lack of a policy, and on the 14th, the radio suddenly announced that the government would stop its survey. Sunagawa overflowed with joy and excitement, and a victory demo was held. On the 15th, a National People’s Rally was held to celebrate the victory of Sunagawa’s fight against the base, and protesters who had sustained grave injuries came from the hospital to address the meeting.

The history and art of ikebana, a centuries old Japanese art of flower arrangement and a look inside the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, where the director's father Sofu Teshigahara worked as the grand master of the school.

In 1959 Hiroshi Teshigahara shot the following 16 mm footage of he and his father’s first trip to Barcelona and the outlying Catalonian countryside, including a visit to the home of Salvador Dali in Port Lligat. The footage was recorded without sound.

The film tells about China, the liberation struggle of the Chinese people, the proclamation of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, the transformation of the country after the victory of the Communists led by Mao Zedong, the elimination of illiteracy, the restoration of the economy destroyed during the civil war, the signing in Moscow of the Treaty of Friendship, Union and Mutual Assistance between the USSR and the PRC.

A propaganda documentary on Hangzhou before and after the liberation.

“Japanese Entry Prohibited”military bases have proliferated to more than 700, occupying an area equivalent to the island of Shikoku and completely encircling Japan’s children. The film depicts the situation at several bases through the eyes of children: Chitose in the north, a base in the mountain village of Tozawamura in Yamagata Prefecture, urban bases in Yokosuka and Tachikawa and Uchinada in Ishikawa Prefecture.

A documentary about the eponymous Puerto Rican boxer

Worldy renowned for his masterpiece The Housemaid (1960), Kim Ki-young debuts with his first short film I Am a Truck (1953), which was sponsored by UN and made a year after the armistice of the Korean War. This film is a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a soon-to-be powerful auteur and influential filmmaker in the post-war Korean cinema, if not the whole history of Korean cinema.

A documentary about the life and art of wood-block artist Katsushika Hokusai.

This film is an artistic documentary written and directed by Tang Mo and Yu Lan and produced by Beijing Film Studio. It reflects the social and historical event of the Beijing Municipal Government banning brothels and reforming prostitutes after the founding of New China. The education and transformation of prostitutes in New China focuses on teaching labor skills, providing job opportunities, allowing them to pursue their own happiness with dignity and health, and giving due punishment to the bosses who exploit prostitutes.

Children Who Draw explores the delicate chemistry of school children interacting in an art class through a constant juxtaposition of observational black-and-white portraits of the young children with lyrical passages shot in vivid color exploring their imaginative and expressive paintings. Experimenting with color as an intimate expression of the children’s inner worlds, a tool for deeper psychological investigation, Hani allows his camera to roam freely across the drawings, “de-framing’” and enagaging the artwork in a manner reminiscent of Alain Resnais.

A short documentary about a trailer weighing over 300 tons that carries material for the construction of a dam toward Tokyo.

In order to completely, cleanly and completely annihilate the Kuomintang troops on the land of China, the Second Field Army led by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping accepted Chairman Mao Zedong's order to liberate the southwest. Photographers from the Central News Documentary Film Studio traveled with the troops and used film to record scenes of the People's Liberation Army soldiers' heroic fight to liberate the whole of China. In 1950, they produced the film "The Great Southwest Song".

One of the first documentaries to focus on the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the film gives voice to survivors of the atomic bombings and documents the long-term effects of radiation on their lives. Combining testimony with stark images of destruction and recovery, it serves as an early cinematic appeal against nuclear war.

An early experimental film by Toshio Matsumoto. Produced as part of the student riots in Japan at the start of the 1960s, Matsumoto uses collage, archival footage, and impassioned narration to create an expressive, visceral criticism of the US-Japan Security Treaty.

At a time when the USSR and the USA fervently vied to develop nuclear arms, the mass media buzzed with terms inspired by nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll such as the “Daigo Fukuryu Maru Incident,” the “ash of death,” “radioactive tuna,” and “radioactive rain,” and nuclear testing continued, Japan, the only nation to have suffered an atom-bomb attack, felt massive anxiety. “What is the radioactive ash of death?” “What effect does it have on living creatures?” Against the background of the era, the film scientifically describes the terrors of radioactivity with the cooperation of many scientists, physicians and research institutions.

A collaborative, newsreel-style portrait of Tokyo in 1957–58, blending photography, animation, and historical imagery to capture the city’s labor, rituals, and nightlife at the moment it became the world’s largest metropolis.

Travelogue made by Yujiro Ishihara during the location shooting of his 1959 film Love and Death (Sekai o kakeru koi) in Europe.

Documentary on photography with the participation of twelve globally famous Japanese photographers.

A teaching film for social studies, which was developed as a new educational subject in 1947. At an elementary school in Hokkaido, children have started a fly extermination campaign to improve school hygiene. In order to eliminate the causes of flies, the entire town is working to improve the sanitary environment. The short was filmed with the cooperation of Mizukaido Elementary School in Joso City and is the first film in the "Social Studies Teaching Film System" by Iwanami Film Productions.

The inhabitants of Cape Muroto in Kochi Prefecture depend on fishing for their living, but have no fishing port in their village and so use the port of Uraga in Kanagawa Prefecture as their main port. 22 crew members in a wooden boat of less than 100t fish for tuna in rough seas, 4,500 miles away from home near Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean, where hydrogen bomb experiments are being carried out. The film focuses on an 18-year-old trainee and his labors aboard the fishing boat for two months, precisely reflecting the fisherman’s daily life.

Japanese documentary.

Showcasing a variety of Thai culture.

This film was touted as its country's first full-length "nature documentary." Following the tradition established by Disney's "True-Life Adventures," the film transports the viewers to the loftiest heights of Japan's mountain ranges. Here, the hardy residents struggle for survival against the elements, and do a pretty good job of it (after all, they've been there longer than the audience has!) Especially well handled are the sequences involving the animal denizens of the snow-capped regions.

Circus of Sheng Changfu

Follow-up to 'The People of Sunagawa'

A documentary film about the Yawata Steel Works.

A documentary about the process of making swords.

Depiction of the harsh life in a rural town in Yamagata.

An examination of a specialist school for twin siblings and the theme of heredity and environment on human development

Haneda’s debut as full director, made after four years spent as an assistant, is set in a farming village in Shiga Prefecture (east of Kyoto). The film depicts the traditional architecture, lifestyles and customs of the village, its agricultural and domestic labour, but its central focus, as with many of Iwanami’s early films, is on education.

Commissioned by the Tokyo National Museum, this film, regarded in some quarters as the masterpiece of Haneda’s Iwanami period, is one of several in which she documented Japan’s ancient and classical artistic treasures. Here she focuses on the Tokyo National Museum’s collection of art from the earliest eras of Japan’s (pre)history, including earthenware pottery and the striking terracotta figurines known as haniwa.

Filmed soon after the end of the Allied occupation, this documentary is an extremely valuable record of the production and nationwide tour of “The Hiroshima Panels” at the time.

This celebrated documentary, filmed in colour, depicts one of the most famous of all Japanese temples. Horyu-ji, in the small town of Ikaruga outside Japan’s ancient capital of Nara, was one of the first Buddhist places of worship established in Japan, and contains the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world, dating from the seventh century.

1957 documentary covering the highly publicized wrestling match between Japanese-Korean Rikidozan versus Lou Thesz.

Karakorumu documentary film

This propaganda film was supported by US Information Service (USIS) and presents Bangkok as a peaceful and developing city at the centre of the “free world,” a narrative pushed forth to counter the threat of the Cold War. Political motivations aside, the film shows Bangkok as a capital on the cusp of modernity that still preserves its traditional values, and there are scenes that evokes nostalgia such as the ballroom dancing at Lumpini Park Auditorium, Chalermthai Theatre on Ratchadamneon Avenue, Dusit Zoo, Don Mueng Airport, the studio at Thailand’s first TV channel, night scenes of downtown Bangkok, and many more.

From the opening sequence, combining underwater and aerial footage, this masterpiece about the construction of a steam-power plant in Kurihama (south of Tokyo) far surpasses the limitations of the promotional film genre, and emerges as one of the most staggering sensory experiences in Japanese documentary.

Short documentary film on the architecture and history of Nara Kofuku-ji and Todai-ji temples.

The citizens of Sunagawa oppose the expansion of Tachikawa Air Base