News and Opinion

Seeing in the Dark: Asia’s Independent Cinema Spaces in the Midst of Uncertainties

A while ago, I was involved with the magazine Nang, in helping with their special issue on film manifestos. At that time, as I reported here, I let them republish my translation of Aoyama Shinji’s "Nouvelle Vague Manifesto" (also available here), provided them with a new introduction, and arranged for Ryan Cook to pen a retrospective analysis of Aoyama’s piece.

This time, I’ve gotten involved in another special issue of Nang, this one online, focusing on independent cinema spaces in Asia. I will be writing about mini-theaters in Japan, discussing in one section the issues such theaters faced during the pandemic that I wrote about here. I also use Theater Kino in Sapporo as an example, based on an interview I did with owner/operate Nakajima Yo (who participated in the Japan Cuts discussion on Obayashi Nobuhiko). The issue is being edited by Davide Cazzaro and Aiko Masubuchi, the former film programmer at the Japan Society in New York with whom I collaborated on the Obayashi Nobuhiko retro in 2015.

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