Japanese
2022-01-13 | Made in Japan YAMAGATA 1989–2021

Available on DAFilms.com from January 17–February 6
First week for free! Almost worldwide excl. Japan


YIDFF Launches Program with Streaming Service DAFilms, Accessible For Free and With Focus on Films From the Festival’s History


The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival partners with streaming service DAFilms, the VOD platform of the festival association Doc Alliance, for an online program available free for one week and on SVOD and TVOD for a further two weeks. The selection by YIDFF programmers highlights key works from the festival’s more than three decades in existence.

The ten films in Made in Japan, Yamagata 1989–2021 trace a curious and inspiring pathway through the history of YIDFF with this first-time online extension of its past programming.

[Period]
January 17–February 6

[Line-ups]
The program is bookended by a cinematic record of the inaugural YIDFF in 1989, produced by Ogawa Shinsuke’s Ogawa Pro (A Movie Capital), and a 2021 documentary about the pandemic-induced closure of a traditional pickle shop, itself a memorable and important social space for the attendees of Yamagata every two years (Pickles and Komian Club). In between are eight Japanese documentaries reflecting the diversity of programming from the past three decades.

A Movie Capital
Dir: Iizuka Toshio/ 1991 / 98 min / YIDFF ’91 Special Invitation
Living on the River Agano
Dir: Sato Makoto / 1992 / 115 min / YIDFF ’93 Award of Excellence
The Weald
Dir: Kawase Naomi / 1997 / 73 min / YIDFF ’97 International Competition
The New God
Dir: Tsuchiya Yutaka / 1999 / 99 min / YIDFF ’99 New Asian Currents
A2
Dir: Mori Tatsuya / 2001 / 131 min / YIDFF 2001 Special Prize, Citizens’ Prize
The Cheese and the Worms
Dir: Kato Haruyo / 2005 / 98 min / YIDFF 2005 Ogawa Shinsuke Prize, FIPRESCI Prize
Dear Pyongyang
Dir: Yang Yonghi / 2005 / 107 min / YIDFF 2005 Special Prize
Storytellers
Dirs: Sakai Ko, Hamaguchi Ryusuke / 2013 / 120 min / YIDFF 2013 SkyPerfectTV IDEHA Prize
Cenote
Dir: Oda Kaori / 2019 / 75 min / YIDFF 2019 New Asian Currents
Pickles and Komian Club
Dir: Sato Koichi / 2021 / 105 min / YIDFF 2021 Yamagata and Film

Program trailer YouTube: Made In Japan YAMAGATA 1989-2021

[Presented by]
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (NPO)
[Commissioned by]
the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan
[In cooperation with]
DAFilms

About DAFilms
The International VOD platform DAFilms began as one of the main projects of Doc Alliance, a creative partnership between 7 of the major European documentary festivals that has lasted 15 years. As a consequence, DAFilms can boast of an unparalleled collection of more than 2,500 festival films, a catalogue built up in close association with some of the most prestigious documentary institutions in the world and which sets it apart from platforms with a shorter lifespan in the world of VOD and festival acquisition.

 


2022-06-22 | “Dr. Markus’ Yamagata Musings” is now available on Docu-Yama Live!

YIDFF held an online event “Made in Japan YAMAGATA 1989–2021” with focus on films from the festival’s history from January to February, 2022. The selection by YIDFF programmers highlights key works from the festival’s more than three decades in existence. The ten films in “Made in Japan Yamagata 1989–2021” trace a curious and inspiring pathway through the history of YIDFF.

Markus Nornes, Professor of Asian Cinema at the University of Michigan who is a longtime friend and colleague of the festival, contributed a series of essays “Dr. Markus’ Yamagata Musings.”

Docu-Yama Live! website: Dr. Markus’ Yamagata Musings