Nobuhiro Kawanaka
Biography
Born in Tokyo in 1941. Began making 8mm films in the early 1960s, and in 1968 took part in the formation of Japan’s first filmmaking association based on individuals. Oversaw the foundation of the organization that would later become Image Forum in 1970. Began to hold regular screenings of experimental films. Has produced a total of 100 short and feature-length works to date, throughout which he has consistently investigated the meaning of making films as an individual.
Known For & Full Filmography4 Titles
Movie - 2013, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Video began as a medium that inspired discovery. This art documentary traces the expressive roots of “media art” in Japan — works of video, performances, and installations created using video technology that allowed for free and creative visual expression.
Movie - 2018, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Masato Hara made his directorial debut in high school in 1968 and achieved a reputation as a young prodigy. Many years later, he continues to make films and show his old experimental 'live-screening' films, but is saddled with massive debts. This film follows eight years in his life.
Movie - 2017, 2h 15m • as Himself
The documentary to find the "true Shuji Terayama".
Movie - 2017, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A five-part documentary chronicling Toshio Matsumoto, the legendary filmmaker known as a pioneer of experimental cinema in Japan and also active as a film theorist, who exerted a profound influence on innovative film expression from the 1950s onward. Directed by filmmaker and critic Takefumi Tsutsui—himself both a filmmaker and critic like Matsumoto—the project was filmed over the course of ten years. Interweaving excerpts from Matsumoto’s works with an extensive series of interviews with collaborators and critics, the documentary retraces, through the figure of Matsumoto, the tumultuous decades from the 1950s to the 2000s across five parts, totaling 700 minutes.