Films byTexts by Shinsuke Ogawa
prisma NL
3.04.2019
Prisma #30

Ik kijk naar Sanrizuka – Heta Buraku [Sanrizuka – Heta Village] (1973). Heta Village is een zachte, fijne regen die de wereld in de blik onherroepelijk metamorfoseert.

Article EN
27.03.2019
Documenting the Heart and Soul of the People Who Tell Stories

We made the scene in which the farmers perform themselves entirely with this kind of method: the villagers and we would bring up “ideas” and discuss them between ourselves; and while we grew closer to one another, we made the film. We didn’t want a reproduction of the story per se, but we wanted to document the heart and soul of the people who tell these stories.

FILM
Sanrizuka – Heta Buraku
Sanrizuka – Heta Village
Shinsuke Ogawa, 1973, 146’

“In a similar way to Minamata: The Victims and Their World, this particular film is a contrastive, reflective work that gains by being juxtaposed with what had preceded it.

FILM
Dokkoi! Ningen bushi
Dokkoi! Songs from the Bottom
Shinsuke Ogawa, 1975, 121’

“In the production diary from the editing, there were many discussions about life and the ethics of filming people who are facing death. For example, on January 2, 1975, there was such a conversation between Tamura and Ogawa.

FILM
Sennen kizami no hidokei – Magino-mura monogatari
The Sundial Carved with a Thousand Years of Notches – The Magino Village Story
Shinsuke Ogawa, 1986, 222’

“What Ogawa’s Sundial Carved by a Thousand Years of Notches (and the Yamagata Documentary Film Festival that it inspired) suggests is that new transnational networks must be built, no matter how unprofessional and utopian, in order to wrest at least some of the power away from the core o

FILM
Sanrizuka – Daini toride no hitobito
Sanrizuka – Peasants of the Second Fortress
Shinsuke Ogawa, 1971, 143’

“Amid this cinematic spectacle, familiar from previous films but now considerably larger and more violent, something very different is going on. In Peasants of the Second Fortress there are occasional moments when the action of the film grinds to a halt and people simply talk.

FILM
Sennen kizami no hidokei – Magino-mura monogatari
The Sundial Carved with a Thousand Years of Notches – The Magino Village Story
Ogawa Productions, 1986, 222’

“The documentary we have been shooting for the last seven or eight years hopes to recreate the natural features – rice, earth, water – and recreate the stories sleeping in the hearts of the villagers.

note EN
25.01.2018
Ogawa Retrospective

After Courtisane Festival last year, Ricardo Matos Cabo’s retrospective of the works of Shinsuke Ogawa and Ogawa Pro continues and expands at Cinéma du Réel and Jeu de Paume.