Japanese

Other Screenings

Special Invitation Films

Yano Kazuyuki, the first YIDFF Tokyo office director, passed away in 2024. Yano laid the foundations for the festival alongside the late filmmaker Ogawa Shinsuke and other collaborators, and in his memory the festival will screen Kidlat Tahimik’s Why Is Yellow Middle of Rainbow? (1994), which was completed through repeated screenings at YIDFF ’89–’93 and dedicated to Ogawa. Additionally, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Ogawa’s birth, there will be a screening of Narita: Heta Village (1973), which also served as the catalyst for Ogawa Productions move to Yamagata. The closing screening will be The Voices of the Silenced (2025), co-directed by Park Soo-nam and Park Maeui. This film weaves together the untold stories of Korean victims of the atomic bomb, Korean former military personnel from the Battle of Okinawa, and women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military, based on 16mm footage filmed over approximately forty years, and was made in collaboration with the director’s daughter, a member of the post-war generation.

Why Is Yellow Middle of Rainbow?
Dir: Kidlat Tahimik / 1994 / 175 min   • Oct. 14 CS
Narita: Heta Village
Dir: Ogawa Shinsuke / 1973 / 146 min   • Oct. 13 CS
Good Valley Stories
Dir: José Luis Guerín / SPAIN, FRANCE / 2025 / 122 min   • Oct. 15 CL

Opening Film
American Direct Cinema Special Selection [New]
Breaking it Up at the Museum
Dir: D.A. Pennebaker / 1960 / 8 min
You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
Dir: D.A. Pennebaker / 1964 / 12 min
Cut Piece, 1964/1965
Producers: Albert Maysles, David Maysles / 1965 / 9 min
The House at Pooneil Corners (excerpt from 1 P.M.)
Film by: D.A. Pennebaker / 1971 / 8 min
Panola
Dir: Ed Pincus, David Neuman / 1970 / 21 min   • Oct. 9 YC

Closing Film
The Voices of the Silenced
Dirs: Park Soo-nam, Park Maeui / 2025 / 148 min   • Oct. 15 YC
Related Exhibition
Yano Kazuyuki Memorial
[Date] October 11 (Mon) –13 (Sat) 13:00–19:00
[Venue] Former Yoshiike Clinic

YIDFF Classics on Digital
Yamagata Documentary Film Library Collection Digitization Project

Supported by Nagase Film Foundation

[Venues] F3 Forum Yamagata 3

Route One/USA
Dir: Robert Kramer / FRANCE / 1989 / 255 min / YIDFF ’89 International Competition The Mayor’s Prize   • Oct. 14 F3
Time Has No Name
Dir: Stefan Jarl / SWEDEN / 1989 / 61 min / YIDFF ’89 International Competition Special Prize   • Oct. 14 F3

 

Yamagata Autumn Arts Festival 2025
Yamagata Creative Cities International Conference 2025
Celebrating UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage:
Cinematic Heritage in Our Communities

Presented by Yamagata City, Yamagata Creative City Promotion Council, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (NPO)
In cooperation with Yamagata Autumn and Winter Arts Festival Committee

[Date] October 11 (Sat) 14:00–16:00
[Venue] Q1 Yamagata Creative City Center Q1 2-C

Passing on Our Cinematic Memories!
This year’s Yamagata Creative Cities International Conference commemorates UNESCO’s World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. Our special guests include an expert from Busan, South Korea (a UNESCO Creative City of Film) along with three leading figures in Japan. How can we preserve valuable film materials within our communities, ensure access to them, and pass them on to the next generation? We will explore creative approaches and share ideas for safeguarding our cinematic heritage.

Panelists
Shin Sung-eun (Film Archive Manager, Busan Asia Film Archive – Busan Cinema Center)
Inagaki Chisato (Art Coordinator, Kamoe Art Center / Keisuke Kinoshita Memorial Museum)
Matsumoto Keiji (Film Archivist, Fukuoka City Public Library Film Archive)
Morimune Atsuko (Moving Image Culture Specialist, Hiroshima City Cinematographic and Audio-Visual Library)
Commentator: Kato Itaru (Chairperson, YIDFF)
Facilitator: Ishihara Kae (Researcher, Yamagata Documentary Film Library)
Related Screening
[Venue] F1 Forum Yamagata 1
Film, the Living Record of Our Memory
Dir: Inés Toharia Terán / CANADA, SPAIN / 2021 / 120 min   • Oct. 10 F1

 

YIDFF Network Special Screening

The YIDFF Network is a volunteer group that was brought together for the inaugural YIDFF in 1989 at the initiative of filmmaker Ogawa Shinsuke. Its wide range of activities includes organizing Friday Theater, a series of screenings for the general public; participation in the selection of films for the festival; and publication activities. In addition, the YIDFF Network Special Screening introduce films reflecting the volunteers’ own perspectives.

In Their Traces
Dir: Kobayashi Shigeru / 2025 / 97 min   • Oct. 14 F3
Sexual abuse has been characterized as a “murder of the spirit.” But is this a suffering that one person must bear alone? Beyond despair, there is hope, a faint ray of light from the spirit.
A friend of the filmmaker suffers from PTSD, having flashbacks of sexual abuse. Having witnessed this, the filmmaker meets a photographer who is also a survivor and decides to make a film. The long production process lasted eight years. What is the nature of the despair, and the hope, that reside deep within these people suffering from PTSD conditions including regret, murderous impulses, depression, insomnia, detachment, and suicidal thoughts? The director appears on screen, questioning the very meaning of making this film. He tries to see light in how they live, looking upward from the depths of suffering.