Filmmaking as a Way of life: Tsuchimoto, Ogawa, and Revolutions in Documentary Cinema

The post-war period in Japanese cinema must surely rank alongside the most important eras in the history of documentary filmmaking. In spite, or perhaps because, of the demise of the country's commercial film industry, which continued almost unabated throughout the 1960s and 1970s, these years saw the emergence of several figures who would revolutionize the documentary form. In particular, they would significantly change the parameters of what is traditionally thought of as a documentary film, and irrevocably alter and transform perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of the documentary filmmaker. Of these directors, the elder statesmen and key names are Tsuchimoto Noriaki and Ogawa Shinsuke. These filmmakers are held in the highest esteem in Japan and Asia for their groundbreaking work in the 1970s, but for various reasons have not quite achieved comparable visibility or acclaim in the West.