Kyoko Michishita Online Screening
In my Hometown I-III (1976). Courtesy of Vtape & Kyoko Michishita.
This screening has been extended through January 29th.
We are thrilled to partner with curator Jesse Cumming and VTape to present the work of artist, writer, and translator Kyoko Michishita from November through January. With grant support from Japan Foundation New York, we are able to present English subtitled versions of Michishita’s Video Portraits – Men series in November and December in the Members Monthly Viewing. In January, Jesse Cumming will present an online screening program.
The program begins with four selections from Michishita’s 1982 project Video Portraits - Men, in which she selected and interviewed a number of Japanese cultural figures she identified for their humanity and refutation of machismo. The portraits are followed by a pairing of Michishita’s In My Hometown trilogy and Being Women in Japan: Living with the Ocean, two early documentary works set and shot in Kiritappu that engage with questions of family, the environment, and belonging.
This program is curated by Jesse Cumming, with restorations provided by Vtape.
November Monthly Members’ Viewing
Video Portraits - Men: Ryoichi Enomoto (1982)
Video Portraits - Men: Issey Miyake (1982)
December Monthly Members’ Viewing
Video Portraits - Men: Maki Ishii (1982)
Video Portraits - Men: Shuntaro Tanikawa (1982)
January Online Screening
In my Hometown I-III (1976)
Being Women in Japan: Living with the Ocean (1974)
The programs will be available for viewing on CCJ’s viewing platform. $12 for non-members; $6 for members.
In my Hometown I-III (1976). Courtesy of Vtape & Kyoko Michishita.
In my Hometown I-III (1976)
In this elegant, muted suite of three miniatures, Michishita captures the snowy landscape of Sapporo with a refined eye for its shadows and textures.
Being Women in Japan: Living with the Ocean (1974). Courtesy of Vtape & Kyoko Michishita.
Being Women in Japan: Living with the Ocean (1974)
A part of Michishita’s two-part series Being Women in Japan, Living with the Ocean alternates between footage of men and women fisherman harvesting kelp, and interviews with both about their lives and their work.
Kyoko Michishita is a Japanese artist, writer, and translator based in Tokyo. With her belief in pacifism, feminism and art, she has been writing and translating books and articles for almost four decades. Born in Kholmsk, Sakhalin in 1942, she and her family escaped to Hokkaido, Japan the year after the end of World War II. She studied journalism at the University of Wisconsin, graduating in 1967. From 1970 through 1997 she served as the Arts Program Specialist of the Tokyo American Center, where she presented work by Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger, Jonas Mekas, Nam June Paik, Bill Viola and many others. [Photo credit: Laurie Toby Edison from Women of Japan]
Jesse Cumming (he/him) is a curator, writer, and researcher. He has served as a Programmer with Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and as a Programming Associate with the Wavelengths section of the Toronto International Film Festival, in addition to Consulting roles with the Berlinale Forum and Open City Documentary Festival. In 2016 he developed Vertical Features, a Toronto screening series dedicated to non-fiction film and video. He has curated, co-curated, and presented programs with The Museum of Modern Art, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Tallinn Photomonth Biennal, Collectif Jeune Cinéma, Anthology Film Archives, the Volksbühne Berlin, La Cinémathèque québécoise, VIVO Media Arts, and more. His writing has appeared in Cinema Scope, The Brooklyn Rail, MUBI Notebook, Filmmaker Magazine, Hyperallergic, Canadian Art, Another Gaze, C Magazine, Berlin Art Link, and more. He was a founding collective member of MICE Magazine, a publication dedicated to Moving Image Culture, Etc., and formerly served on the steering committee of the Toronto Film & Media Seminar. He is currently a Media Lecturer with Ryerson University’s Cairo Campus.
Vtape is a vibrant distribution organization that represents an international collection of contemporary and historical video art and media works by artists. We make this collection accessible to curators and programmers, educators, scholars and public audiences worldwide. In addition to providing a distribution framework for established and emerging artists, Vtape is committed to establishing video art preservation and exhibition standards, and strives to support hybrid practices in an increasingly complex technical milieu. Kyoko Michishita's videos and films are distributed by Vtape; please contact distribution@vtape.org for more information.