Assatsu no mori – Takasaki Keizai Daigaku toso no kiroku

Produced by Jieiso, Ogawa’s first collective, Forest of Oppression takes sides with a group of young students barricaded in a small provincial university. The film, shot over a year, is a portrait of this rebellious youth, as they unite in their critique of authority, edited together with images of the growing unrest in the streets. Forest of Oppression established Ogawa’s method of making films from the “inside” and for a long period of time in close relation with the people he filmed and the struggles they fought. The film galvanised the burgeoning student movement and helped to create an alternative film exhibition movement in Japan.