Dates: Friday, February 22, 2019 to Sunday, February 24, 2019
Venue: Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University
City and State: New Haven, CT
Organizers: Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University
Kinema Club XVIII, with the support of the Council on East Asian Studies, will take place at Yale University February 22-24, 2019. The Kinema Club conferences on Japanese film and media have distinguished themselves over the years for their variety and inventiveness, ranging from workshops to full-fledged conferences, from themed symposia to sidebars of film festivals. This edition will be a new step even for Kinema Club, in that it will center on screening and discussing rare films, not on delivering papers.
The format, inspired by the conferences held by the European Studies Council at Yale, centers on the screening of 35mm prints of rarely seen films over a three-day period. After each film or set of films, a panel of 3-4 members will begin discussion not by reading prepared papers, but by each member offering comments strictly limited to 5-10 minutes. This leaves the majority of the time open for discussion among all the participants.
To help focus the discussion, the Yale organizing committee has decided the theme of KC XVIII will be “Gender and Sexuality in Japanese Cinema.” Japanese cinema has long been explored through its treatment of gender and sexuality, from the modern women of Mizoguchi to the masculine fantasies of yakuza films, from the obscured eroticism of roman porno to the beautiful fighting girls of anime. In selecting this theme, the organizing committee wishes to invite new perspectives on the visual construction of gender and sexuality in Japanese media by screening films rarely seen which scholars can position to intervene in ongoing conversations about gender and sexuality.
Kinema Club XVIII is co-sponsored by the Council on East Asian Studies and the Yale Film Study Center, an Associate of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), with prints courtesy of National Film Archive of Japan and generous support from Films at the Whitney through the Barbakow Fund for Innovative Film Programs at Yale. The event has been assisted by the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Program in Film and Media Studies.
All screenings and panel discussions are free and open to the public.
February 22, Friday:
- 7:00pm - Fukujusō (Kawate Jirō, 1935) 『福寿草』(監督 川手二郎)
With benshi by Kataoka Ichiro and live piano accompaniment by Makia Matsumura
Panelists: Sarah Frederick, Marta Figlerowicz, Brian Meacham
February 23, Saturday:
- 9:00 am - Gate of Flesh (Makino Masahiro, 1948)『肉体の門』(監督 マキノ正博)
Panelists: Saitō Ayako, Kamiya Makiko, Vera Mackie, Griseldis Kirsch (Moderator: Irene Gonzalez) - 11:30am - Lunch break
- 12:30pm - Lily Festival (Hamano Sachi, 2001)『百合祭』(監督 浜野佐知)
Panelists: Jasper Sharp, Caitlin Casiello, Jonathan Hall
3:30pm - Coffee break:
- 4:00pm - Flowers Have Fallen (Ishida Tamizō, 1938) 『花ちりぬ』(監督 石田民三) and Madam Butterfly’s Illusion (Arai Wagorō, 1940) 『蝶々夫人の幻想』(監督 荒井和五郎)
Panelists: Katie Trumpener, Hsin-Yuan Peng, Jason Douglass
6:30pm - Dinner break:
- 8:00pm - The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman (Okamoto Kihachi, 1963)『江分利満氏の優雅な生活』(監督 岡本喜八)
Panelists: Hannah Airess, Miryam Sas, Jennifer Coates, Xavier Sawada
February 24, Sunday:
- 9:00am - The Eternal Breasts (Tanaka Kinuyo, 1955)『/乳房よ永遠なれ』(監督 田中絹代)
- Panelists: Alejandra Armendariz-Hernandez, Roger Macy, Irene Gonzalez, Earl Jackson