Looking like an artless copy of Filmmaking and the Way to the Village,
A Visit to Ogawa Productions is a record of Oshima Nagisa's visit
to the collective during the filming of A Japanese Village-Furuyashikimura.
Thus, it should be no surprise that the film consists mostly of eating,
drinking and discussion. Lots of discussion. Oshima picked an opportune
time to visit Ogawa Productions in Yamagata, as they were looking
to the future in the wake of Narita Airport's completion and the demise
of the student movement. Ogawa and his crew had moved to Yamagata
to search for a new subject, a new way of life, and a new form of
documentary. The work-in-progress that Oshima finds before him is
confusing the boundaries between PR, science film, agit-prop, visual
anthropology, history film, and the art documentary. Curiously enough,
A Visit to Ogawa Productions restricts itself to the documentary's
recording function without availing itself of the cinematic tools
Ogawa was pushing to the limit.
[Abé Mark Nornes]
* [This print is a restored version that includes 13 addtional minutes
of unedited footage.] |
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