Biography

Masanori Oe, born in 1942, moved to New York alone in 1965, attracted by avant-garde art. He began making films in the midst of turbulent times, including the anti-Vietnam war and the psychedelic movement. Together with Jonas Mekas and others, he founded the filmmakers' collective Newsreel, and their films have been distributed throughout the United States. From experimental films with psychedelic imagery to documentaries of anti-war rallies in Vietnam, his films, which capture the times from a personal perspective, have recently been reevaluated and screened in numerous screenings in Japan and abroad. Among these, "Great Society," commissioned by the BBC, is a stunning work that depicts the history of the United States in the 1960s using a collage of news footage and six 16mm multi-panel images. The film has been screened at film festivals in Japan and abroad, as well as at museums such as MoMA. The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and other museums in Japan also have collections of his works. This program is a collection of 10 short films made during his stay in New York from 1966 to 1968. ("Four" is a silent work).