was a Japanese documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 film director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

. Ogawa and Noriaki Tsuchimoto

Noriaki Tsuchimoto

was a Japanese documentary film director known for his films on Minamata disease and examinations of the effects of modernization on Asia. Tsuchimoto and Shinsuke Ogawa have been called the "two figures [that] tower over the landscape of Japanese documentary."-Early years:Tsuchimoto was born in...

 have been called the "two figures [that] tower over the landscape of Japanese documentary."

Career

Ogawa began his career at Iwanami Productions (Iwanami Eiga) making PR (public relations) films alongside other important directors such as Tsuchimoto, Kazuo Kuroki

Kazuo Kuroki

-Filmography:* Silence Has No Wings * Preparation for the Festival * Yūgure made * The Bridge of Tears * Tomorrow * Pickpocket * The Face of Jizo * The Blossoming of Kamiya Etsuko...

, Yōichi Higashi

Yōichi Higashi

is a Japanese film director. He began his career working on documentaries at Iwanami Productions but, after going independent, turned to fiction film...

, and Susumu Hani

Susumu Hani

is a Japanese film director, and one of the most prominent representatives of the 1960s Japanese New Wave. Born in Tokyo, he has directed both documentaries and feature films....

. Turning independent, he first made documentaries about radical political movements in 1960s and 1970s Japan, most famously the "Sanrizuka" or "Narita" series, which recorded the struggle by farmers and student protesters to prevent the construction of the Narita International Airport

Narita International Airport

is an international airport serving the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is located east of Tokyo Station and east-southeast of Narita Station in the city of Narita, and the adjacent town of Shibayama....

 in Sanrizuka, Chiba Prefecture

Chiba Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region and the Greater Tokyo Area. Its capital is Chiba City.- History :Chiba Prefecture was established on June 15, 1873 with the merger of Kisarazu Prefecture and Inba Prefecture...

. He won the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award

Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award

The is given annually by the Directors Guild of Japan to a new director of a film released that year who is considered the most "suitable" for the award. The winner is selected by a committee formed of DGJ members. All formats—feature film, documentary, television, video, etc.—are eligible for...

 for Summer in Narita in 1970. Ogawa's was a committed form of documentary, which clearly took the side of those combatting unjust power. A growing sense that he did not understand the life of the farmers he was filming, however, led Ogawa and his crew, collectively called Ogawa Productions, to leave for Magino in Yamagata Prefecture

Yamagata Prefecture

-Fruit:Yamagata Prefecture is the largest producer of cherries and pears in Japan. A large quantity of other kinds of fruits such as grapes, apples, peaches, melons, persimmons and watermelons are also produced.- Demographics :...

 where they spent decades filming the life and histories of everyday farmers while living with them and pursuing agriculture. He often worked with the cinematographer Masaki Tamura

Masaki Tamura

is a Japanese cinematographer.-Career:Born in Aomori Prefecture, Tamura early on worked at Iwanami Productions , where as an assistant he helped photograph documentary films. He became a full-fledged cinematographer working on many of the documentaries of Shinsuke Ogawa...

. The "Magino" films became the epitome of Ogawa's stance towards documentary: that one can only record a reality that one has been truly immersed in. Ogawa was influential in the creation of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival

Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival

The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival is a documentary film festival held biennially in Yamagata, Japan.It was first held in October 1989, which makes it one of the longest running documentary film festivals in the world and the most distinguished such festival in Asia...

, where the top prize in the Asia program was named after him. The film Devotion by Barbara Hammer

Barbara Hammer

Barbara Hammer is an American filmmaker in the genre of experimental films and a professor at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee.-Biography:...

 is about Ogawa Productions.

Filmography

• A Sea of Youth (青年の海 Seinen no umi) (1966)
• The Oppressed Students (圧殺の森　高崎経済大学闘争の記録 Assatsu no mori: Takasaki Keizai Daigaku toso no kiroku) (1967)
• Summer in Narita (日本開放戦線 三里塚の夏　Nihon Kaiho sensen: Sanrizuka no natsu) (1968)
• Narita: The Peasants of the Second Fortress (三里塚 第二砦の人々 Sanrizuka: Dainitoride no hitobito) (1971)
• Heta Village (三里塚 辺田部落 Sanrizuka: Heta buraku) (1973)
• A Japanese Village - Furuyashikimura (ニッポン国 古屋敷村 Nipponkoku Furuyashikimura) (1982)
• Magino Village: A Tale (1000年刻みの日時計 牧野村物語 1000-nen kizami no hidokei: Maginomura monogatari) (1987)
• Red Persimons (満山紅柿　上山 － 柿と人とのゆきかい Manzan Benigaki) (2001)