Like the US and Europe, Japan developed an experimental documentary movement in the 1960s and 70s that reflected and influenced the social, cultural, and political changes of the time. The Harvard Film Archive program Three Radical Japanese Filmmakers presents a trio of the more significant artists.
Motoharu Jonouchi, who was at the organizational forefront of the movement, is represented by Gewaltopia Trailer (1969) and Shinjuku Station (1974). Both are part of the so-called Gewaltopia series in which shots of spaces, objects, and clips from old movies including a political demonstration, an eyelid inscribed with calligraphy, a nuclear blast, and the 1920 silent movie The Golem are assembled into metaphorical statements.
Advertisement
Masanori Oe and Marvin Fishmans Great Society (2016) presents a collage of images of events from the Lyndon Johnson era, such as the Vietnam War, antiwar demonstrations, the counterculture, and the civil rights movement as well as the inevitable nuclear bomb blast.
Perhaps the most significant film in the program and certainly the one with the most portentous title is Rikuro Miyais Phenomenology of Zeitgeist (1967), which records a happening in front of a bookstore in the city of Shinjuku. It is projected on multiple screens.
Get The Weekender in your inbox:
The Globe's top picks for what to see and do each weekend, in Boston and beyond.
Three Radical Japanese Filmmakers screens Friday at 7 p.m. at the Harvard Film Archive. The films will be introduced by researcher and curator Go Hirasawa.
For more information go to hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2017marmay/radical.html.
One of my favorite documentaries of 2016, Tickled started out as a short, lighthearted feature about competitive endurance tickling. The gripping end result, by New Zealands David Farrier and Dylan Reeve, is a descent into an alternative universe of paranoia, power, and sociopathy. Its like a graphic novel by Thomas Pynchon.
Tickled airs Monday at 10 p.m. on HBO.
For more information go to http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/tickled.
Advertisement
The blues dont get much more authentic than the music of Fred McDowell (1906-72), a Mississippi sharecropper who was discovered by the legendary Alan Lomax in 1959. McDowell toured with the Rolling Stones in the mid-1960s, was a guiding light for Bonnie Raitt, and influenced the music of Taj Mahal. Joe Yorks Shake Em On Down: The Blues According to Fred McDowell compiles interviews and never-before-seen performance footage of McDowell to tell the story of this giant of American music.
Shake Em On Down can be seen Sunday at 9 p.m. as part of the Reel South series on PBSs World Channel. It will stream online the day after broadcast at WORLDChannel.org.
For more information go to http://www.scetv.org/reelsouth.
A documentary that Ive been hearing a lot about and am looking forward to seeing is Mr. Gaga by Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heymann. Its about Ohad Naharin, a choreographer and the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv. It won the audience award at last years South by Southwest Film Festival and was nominated for a European Film Award. A critic friend tells me, I dont want to give too much away, but there are narrative developments from the you-cant-make-that-up realm. Sounds like my kind of picture.
Mr. Gaga can be seen March 5 at 5 p.m. at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport.
For more information go to http://www.firehouse.org/see-a-show/116-mr-gaga.
Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey (the latter less intimidating than he sounds like a more hirsute version of Will Ferrell in Elf) had a dream to perfect their act a kind of low-tech, burlesque Cirque du Soleil and become stars. In her film aptly titled Us, Naked: Trixie and Monkey, documentarian Kirsten DAndrea Hollander follows their sometimes tempestuous, sometimes triumphant progress for seven years, including a stint at the New England Institute for Circus Arts in Brattleboro, Vt. If you dream it, you can be it, especially if youre willing to wear funny fake ears.
Us, Naked: Trixie and Monkey debuts Tuesday on DVD, VOD, and Digital.
For more information go to usnakedthefilm.com.
What better place to analyze how capitalist organizations work in a conspicuous consumption economy than in a Dallas Neiman-Marcus department store in the 1980s? Thats where auteur Frederick Wiseman sets up shop for The Store (1983), a surprisingly funny and fully engrossing documentary that covers every department in this department store from cashier to corporate office, from chi-chi customers to smile exercises for salespeople showing how it all works, and sometimes doesnt.
The Store screens as part of the Frederick Wiseman: For the Record series on March 5 at 12:30 p.m. and March 8 at 7:30 p.m. at Museum of Fine Arts.
For more information go to http://www.mfa.org/programs/series/frederick-wiseman-for-the-record.
Read the rest here:
Looking forward to a rad week for nonfiction film - The Boston Globe
- The Zeitgeist Film Series Gateway | Zeitgeist: The Movie ... - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- The Zeitgeist Movement Global - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- TZM - Mission Statement - The Zeitgeist Movement - December 10th, 2016 [December 10th, 2016]
- Zeitgeist: Addendum, Debunked - Skeptic Project - December 23rd, 2016 [December 23rd, 2016]
- ZMCA Homepage - January 9th, 2017 [January 9th, 2017]
- Top Five Zeitgeist: The Movie Myths! | Peter Joseph - January 9th, 2017 [January 9th, 2017]
- What is the Zeitgeist Movement - January 9th, 2017 [January 9th, 2017]
- Here Is Everything You Ever Need to Know About Magical Tutting - Inverse - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Tambor Felt Great 'Responsibility' to Transgender Community in ... - ABC News - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Piaget Altiplano turns 60, and it's still the choice of today's jetset sophisticate - City A.M. - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- 'Der Spiegel' magazine sparks furor as cover depicts Trump beheading Lady Liberty - Deutsche Welle - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Super Bowl Ads Capture Zeitgeist and Commodify Diversity - The Wesleyan Argus - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- 'Recruit Rosie': When Satire Joins the Resistance - The Atlantic - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- A movie of the artist as a young man: Paolozzi silent film stars in film festival - Herald Scotland - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- If Los Angeles Becomes a Bona Fide Fashion Show Destination, What's Next? - WWD - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Why I chose Jefferson Avenue over Madison Avenue - The Drum - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- We spoke to the new generation of British playwrights who will dominate 2017 - The Independent - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Salman Rushdie's New Novel is About Political Correctness and the Culture Wars - Heat Street - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- The rise and rise of clean beauty - Evening Standard - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Badass Baroque - Daily News & Analysis - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Five things to know from Netflix's 2017 launch - Newstalk 106-108 fm - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- What to Watch at the Grammys - Wall Street Journal - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Young Artists Lead Through Emotional Expression, Powerful Voices and a Conviction for Social Justice - Youth Today - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- When the Secular is the Sacred - Patheos (blog) - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Ava DuVernay's Oscar-nominated '13th' documentary aims to unlock the truth - LA Daily News - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Bernie O'Rourke: An Irishman's Passion for Business - Caldwell University News - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- 9 Ways the Grammys have Totally Blown It - Newsweek - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Q&A: Chef Michel Gurard, a Pioneer of Low-Calorie Cuisine - TIME - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Ava DuVernay's Oscar-nominated '13th' documentary aims to unlock the truth - The Pasadena Star-News - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- The busy busy family's garden - Leinster Express - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- South-West Review bulletin board February 12, 2017 - Lillie News - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Movement as bleak theater, with some terrific Pharrell music too - Los Angeles Times - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Bishops' fumble with same-sex marriage means the Church of England is about to lose a generation - The Conversation UK - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- The Grammys Honored the Wrong Album, and Adele Knew It - Advocate.com - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- These '80s Artists Are More Important Than Ever - New York Times - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Whitehall's war on unaccompanied minors - LocalGov - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- Britpop songs 10 of the best - The Guardian (blog) - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Our president is a TV addict. It's going to get the best of him, but he'll never get the best of it. - Washington Post - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- How wellness trends may shape health industry in 2017 - Fox News - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- President Donald Trump is a TV addict - MyDaytonDailyNews - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Belly-Button Rings: Where Are They Now? - Racked - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- In the age of surveillance, what do any of us have left to hide? - Irish Times - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- Slam a poem - The News on Sunday - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- With 'The Breaks,' VH1 revisits the '90s hip-hop scene when success wasn't a sure bet - Los Angeles Times - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Why Fashion Has Every Right To Be Political Right Now - W Magazine - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Bangkok city guide: what to do plus the best hotels, restaurants and bars - The Guardian - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Cobbling together: the Brooklynites who gather to make handcrafted shoes - The Guardian - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- The Harlem Renaissance, Alexander Wang and the VLONE Pop Up Shop - Huffington Post - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Museo Amparo - E-Flux - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- These are 'The Breaks': Inside VH1's 'grounded' new hip-hop series ... - Screener - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Why winning the French presidential election could be a poisoned chalice - The Conversation UK - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Campaigners to keep Britain in the EU could learn from Team Brexit - WalesOnline - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- How Sanjay Lalbhai & Pankaj Chandra are trying to build a unique university in Ahmedabad - Economic Times - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Maybe the Earth Is Flat - The Root - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Resistance Against Donald Trump Is Not a New Tea Party | Time.com - TIME - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Forget PoliticiansThe People Of The West Have Decided Against Muslim Immigration - VDARE.com - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Interruptions with fluid movements - The Navhind Times - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Summer of Love 50th Anniversary Posters Wake up Market Street - 7x7 - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Sean Spicer blames chaotic town halls on 'professional protesters.' So did Obama's team. - Washington Post - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- 30 years after his death, James Baldwin is having a new pop culture moment - Los Angeles Times - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Turning Over Stones (What The Election Set Free) - Huffington Post - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Occupancies Explores the World of Our Bodies - BU Today - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- The age of the people - The News on Sunday - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- Cruising Down SoCal's Boulevards: Streets as Spaces for Celebration and Cultural Resistance - KCET - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- The Old Divisions, They Do Divide Us - The Good Men Project (blog) - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- When Oscars speeches get political: the best, worst and most annoying in Academy Award history - The Mercury News - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- NAACP Fundraiser Honors Black Leaders, Activists - FOX 21 Online - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- The Simpsons Gospel: A Newer Testament for Troubled Times? - Huffington Post - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Johnson & Johnson pursues empathy in an age of 'anxiety and mistrust' - CampaignLive - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Outcry Kills Anti-Protest Law in Arizona, but Troubling Trend Continues Nationwide - Truth-Out - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Kendrick Lamar Gives A Glimpse Into His Mindset As He Approaches His New Album (Video) - Ambrosia For Heads - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Max Eastman: Curmodgeon - The Liberty Conservative - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- CHAZAN | The Revolution Will Not Have Shoulderpads: Image Comics 25 Years Later - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Big crowd still feeling the Bern at Jewish socialism confab - Jweekly.com - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- David Duchovny Hits the Road to Seek the Musical Truth That's Out There - PopMatters - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Donald and the Dominatrix: How the White House Inspired a BDSM Movement - Salon - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- It's Not McCarthyism, Stupid - New Matilda - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- Inclusive, 'cool' Toronto shown in new tourism ad - Toronto Star - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Visa shows you how #KindnessIsCashless via their latest ad campaign - ETBrandEquity.com - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- The Zeitgeist Movement | New York City Chapter - Home - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]