Naoki Yamamoto; Documenting the War Effort: Imamura Taihei and Wartime Japanese Film Theory

The Department of History of Art presents a lecture by Naoki Yamamoto, Yale University, Documenting the War Effort: Imamura Taihei and Wartime Japanese Film Theory.

One of the most acclaimed theorists in the history of Japanese cinema, Imamura’s writings are marked by his dual interest in animation and documentary, the two “marginalized” genres that garnered greater popularity in the period following Japan’s participation in the war against China in 1931. By providing a close reading of his two seminal books—Kiroku eigaron (On Documentary Film, 1941) and Manga eigaron (On Animation, 1942)—this lecture seeks to elucidate the continuing relevance of Imamura’s film theory to our current mediascape.