DEVOTION,
A Film About Ogawa Productions
Directed by Barbara Hammer
DEVOTION, a story about Ogawa Productions, is an 82-minute documentary of an important Japanese post-war documentary collective that made significant films of social struggle and village life. This investigative documentary situates the revolutionary lifestyle and films of Ogawa Productions within the framework of the global student movement of the New Left in the mid 60’s and the emerging documentary movement in Japan. In-depth stories from the collective members who contributed to this unique film making process are examined from a variety of perspectives and understandings. OSHIMA Nagisa, HARA Kazuo and HANEDA Sumiko, well-known film directors, present their personal recollections of this unique group. Memory, history, national culture, gender, and identity all figure in the stories as the evolution, development, and finally, disintegration, of this seminal film collective unfold.
Director’s Biography
Barbara Hammer is an internationally recognized independent filmmaker who has made 75 films and videos in the last thirty years. She has completed four feature film documentaries recalling lost histories. Nitrate Kisses (1992), Out of South Africa (1994), Tender Fictions (1995), and The Female Closet (1998). That have received international attention, television broadcast and commercial release. Her films have screened at: The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Image Forum, the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festivals (1995,1997), The Museum of Modern Art (New York City), Centre Pampidou (Paris), and The Whitney Museum of American Art.