New Horizon of Anthropological Films from Japan

The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology (JASCA) will hold their 50th Anniversary Conference jointly with the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) Inter-Congress in May, 2014. Several other anthropological organizations are participating as well.

The conference aims to attract well over 1000 international and domestic delegates to Chiba City in Greater Tokyo. The theme will be The Future with/of Anthropologies. The language of the conference will be English.

For more details: http://www.iuaes.org/japan2014/

This is probably the biggest anthropology conference of the year. One session might be of particular interest to visual anthropologists and filmmakers:

New Horizons of Anthropological Films form Japan

Convener: Itsushi Kawase (National Museum of Ethnology, Japan)

Currently, a considerable number of films have been produced by Japanese anthropologists centering on the variety of cultures in the world. Since 2006, more than 70 films have been presented in the film program in the annual meetings of the Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology. Some of them have been circulated and discussed widely in the internationally-acclaimed academic film festivals. The recent dramatic growth of the anthropological/ethnographic film platforms and visual anthropologists’ scholarly networks in the world have further facilitated the production and progress of methodology of anthropological filmmaking in Japan. Furthermore, several interdisciplinary audio-visual workshops led by anthropologists explore the new form of audio-visual storytelling and expand the practice of knowledge creation in humanities in conjunction with film, contemporary art and anthropology. This film program will present some of the latest films produced by anthropologists in Japan. We invite scholars who are interested in integrating film as the practice of doing anthropology and have the discussion on different audio-visual approaches to anthropological subjects as well as the different styles and conventions employed in the construction of films.

Date and Time: May 18th, 10:30- Venue: Room 304(3rd Floor), International Conference Hall, Makuhari Messe

For more information: http://www.cva-iuaes.com/japan2014/