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Nihon kaiko sensen – Sanrizuka no natsu

The Battle Front for the Liberation of Japan – Summer in Sanrizuka
Shinsuke Ogawa
1968 Japan 108 minutes Japanese

In 1968, the members of newly formed Ogawa Pro followed a brigade of student activists and joined the growing movement of resistance by the farmers and their allies against the forced eviction from their lands to build a new international airport in Narita, near Tokyo. Summer in Sanrizuka is a call-to-arms, a raucous film shot during the first land surveys and the first clashes between the airport authorities and the protesters. The film shows how the students and the farmers were able to forge an alliance and find common ground in order to organise and strengthen their cooperative struggle. The collective settled in the village of Heta, one of the centres of this struggle, and for the next decade they directed a powerful series of seven films about the protracted struggle of the peasants.

Production :
Hideko Kobayashi, Hiro Fuseya, ryuiji Ichiyama, Ogawa Pro
Photography :
Koshiro Otsu, Masaki Tamura
Sound :
Yukio Kubota
Print contact :
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival • email oki@yidff.jp

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