I felt the list should mark the passing of a major filmmaker of the last
50 years. Two-time winner of the Palme D'Or and numerous other industry
awards, 'Japanese New Wave' filmmaker, Shohei Imamura (1926-2006). His
films were absolutely uncompromising in addressing the dimensions of
Japanese (and through it) human social and historical experience that
were not as refined, lyrical or 'humanitarian' as others. I have had a
little to do with the independent film school he founded in Japan in the
1960s, the Japan Academy of Moving Images, a school he maintained strong
involvement in throughout his career. I was fortunate enough to meet
Imamura Sensei when he presented his wonderful, terrible, <Black Rain>
(<Kuroi Ame>) to Australian audiences for the first time in 1999. His
charming, excoriating wit and impish delight in knocking people off
their intellectual/political kilter was evident to all when he fielded
questions from the audience about this Hiroshima surivivor film. A
dissolving humour lies at the heart of the truly philosophical character
of his lifetime project.
Patrick Crogan
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