japanese
Special Invitation Films
  • Seasonal Work in Tokyo
  • Man with No Name
  • The Oppressed Students
  • Regarding the Lives of Others
  • Far from Afghanistan: The October Edition
    		•

    The Oppressed Students

    (Assatsu no mori Takasakikeizaidaigaku toso no kiroku)
    - JAPAN / 1967 / Japanese / B&W / 16mm / 105 min

    Director: Ogawa Shinsuke
    Photography: Otsu Koshiro
    Sound: Kubota Yukio
    Production Company: Documentary film “The Oppressed Students” Executive Production Committee, Society for Independent Exhibition
    Source: The Film School of Tokyo

    - A record of the student uprising at the Takasaki College of Economics, an event that became a forerunner of the nationwide student rebellions of the late 1960s. Nepotism in entrance procedures, the city authorities’ regular intervention in the school administration, and the lack of student freedom were all injustices protested by the angry students. The school administration suppressed them with threats, intimidation, and even violence. When a few dozen students barricaded themselves in the student hall, Ogawa and his staff locked themselves up there with them, following their actions, discussions, and private moments with impressive close-ups. Ogawa was able to achieve such a feeling of unity with the students that he could say with confidence that “none of them hid anything from the camera.”


    - Ogawa Shinsuke

    Born in Tokyo in 1936. After working as assistant director at Iwanami Productions, Ogawa went freelance in 1964 and made his first film, Sea of Youth (1966), followed by Report from Haneda (1967) and others. His films won support at workplaces and universities throughout Japan in the midst of the Zenkyoto student movement. He founded Ogawa Productions in 1968 and immersed himself in the production of the Sanrizuka series, which depicted the movement of farmers in opposition to the construction of Narita International Airport. Continuing to make films from the standpoint of farmers, in 1974 Ogawa moved to the village of Magino in Kaminoyama, Yamagata Prefecture, where he filmed A Japanese Village—Furuyashikimura (1982) and Magino Village—A Tale (1986), while growing rice and observing life in farming villages. His dedicated work as an organizing member of the first YIDFF in 1989 was instrumental to the festival’s success. He passed away on February 7, 1992.