Directed by Kazuhiro Soda • Documentary • 2008 • 135 minutes
MENTAL is a documentary that observes the complex world of an outpatient mental health clinic Chorale Okayama in Japan, interwoven with patients, doctors, staff, volunteers, and home-helpers.
"To draw the curtain between normality and what normality calls abnormality is the purpose of this film. But more than that, the curtain is drawn upon a beautiful theater, Yamamoto's office, where beautiful characters slowly enlarge the world with their joyful sadness." —Jury's comment, Busan Int. Film Festival
- Berlinale 2009
- Special Jury Mention, Miami International Film Festival
- Best Documentary, Busan International Film Festival
- Best Documentary, Dubai International Film Festival
- Outstanding Documentary Award, Hong Kong International Film Festival
- Inter-religious Jury Prize, Visions du Réel
Directed by Shohei Imamura • Documentary • 2012 • 48 minutes
Shohei Imamura rejoins Fujita, one of the subjects of IN SEARCH OF THE UNRETURNED SOLDIERS IN THAILAND, for the former soldier's first trip home to Japan following his post-war exile.
Fujita's reunion with Japan is not a happy one. He...
Directed by Kazuhiro Soda • Documentary • With Shiro Hashimoto, Hiroko Kashiwagi, Toshio Kashiwagi • 2010 • 75 minutes
What is peace? What is coexistence? And what are the bases for them? PEACE is a visual-essay-like observational documentary, which contemplates these questions by observing the ...
Directed by Shinsuke Ogawa, Peng Xiaolian • Documentary • 2001 • 90 minutes
The ostensible subject of this remarkably beautiful film is the growing, drying, peeling and packaging of persimmons in the tiny Japanese village of Kaminoyama. The inhabitants explain that it is the perfect combination ...
