Shinsuke Ogawa

Shinsuke Ogawa

Known For: Directing

Date Of Birth:1935-06-25

Place Of Birth:Shiba, Tokyo, Japan

Shinsuke Ogawa (小川紳介, Ogawa Shinsuke) (25 June 1935 - 7 February 1992) was a Japanese documentary film director. Ogawa and Noriaki Tsuchimoto have been called the "two figures [that] tower over the landscape of Japanese documentary." Ogawa began his career at Iwanami Productions (Iwanami Eiga) making PR (public relations) films alongside other important directors such as Tsuchimoto, Kazuo Kuroki, Yōichi Higashi, and Susumu Hani. Turning independent, he first made documentaries about radical political movements in 1960s and 1970s Japan, most famously the "Sanrizuka" or "Narita" series, which recorded the struggle by farmers and student protesters to prevent the construction of the Narita International Airport in Sanrizuka, Chiba Prefecture. He won the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award for Summer in Narita in 1970. Ogawa's was a committed form of documentary, which clearly took the side of those combatting unjust power. A growing sense that he did not understand the life of the farmers he was filming, however, led Ogawa and his crew, collectively called Ogawa Productions, to leave for Magino in Yamagata Prefecture where they spent decades filming the life and histories of everyday farmers while living with them and pursuing agriculture. He often worked with the cinematographer Masaki Tamura. The "Magino" films became the epitome of Ogawa's stance towards documentary: that one can only record a reality that one has been truly immersed in. Ogawa was influential in the creation of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, where the top prize in the Asia program was named after him. The film Devotion by Barbara Hammer is about Ogawa Productions.

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Castings

三里塚 辺田部落
ニッポン国 古屋敷村
映画の都
満山紅柿
牧野物語・峠
牧野物語・峠
日本解放戦線・三里塚の夏
1000年刻みの日時計 牧野村物語
三里塚 第二砦の人々
どっこい!人間節 寿・自由労働者の街
圧殺の森 高崎経済大学闘争の記録
三里塚・第三次強制測量阻止闘争
三里塚 五月の空 里のかよい路
日本解放戦線 三里塚
現認報告書 羽田闘争の記録
牧野物語・峠
牧野物語・養蚕篇
三里塚・岩山に鉄塔ができた
青年の海 四人の通信教育生たち