Miyamoto-cho is a community of Mom-and-Pop stores and family enterprises located near the center of Tokyo. Competition from supermarkets and shopping centers threatens the livelihoods of long-term residents. High land prices tempt owners to tear down old homes and replace them with apartment buildings; this in turn is changing the composition of the population. Against this backdrop, residents strive to maintain the close social ties, symbols of local identity, and community rituals that keep Miyamoto-cho from becoming just another mailing address. Theodore Bestor began his research here in 1979. His prize winning book of the same name is available through Stanford University Press. This documentary is one of a series depicting the variety of life in today's Japan in the context of human problems common to all industrial nations. A comprehensive study guide is available.
When comedians draw on the family to make people laugh, everyone is concerned. This documentary looks at everything that is horrifying or hilarious in the family: from the "new generation" fathers to the dictates of the perfect mother, as well as the taboos of parenthood, unmanageable teenagers, and unbearable mothers-in-law.
ONLY IN THEATERS, a film by actor/director Raphael Sbarge, is an intimate and moving journey taken with the Laemmle family, spanning nearly three years of challenges, losses, and personal triumphs.
After a spell cast by Grandma Faraway, the oldest son of a small family encounters the ghost of his late Grandma Maria still living in her old house, and they chat as they used to.
A sensitive heart-warming story of an Indian transman's acceptance, by himself and his family. Merlin, born as a girl, felt right from his childhood that he was trapped in the wrong gender.
World War II comes to an end. Tokyo is a destroyed place, without law, driven by hunger and greed. From over 100,000 pages of declassified CIA documents and hours of newly discovered footage, recorded by American occupation charges and private individuals, the documentary shows Tokyo during this crucial year, Year Zero.
In Papua New Guinea, pig tusks and shell money are currencies which can buy most things. Henry Tokubak’s dream is to create the first bank where traditional money counts as legal tender.
IDFA and Canadian filmmaker Peter Wintonick had a close relationship for decades. He was a hard worker and often far from home, visiting festivals around the world.
Welcome to ISAN, Thailand's forgotten frontier, where Lao, Thai and Cambodian folkloric traditions have conspired to create a mystifying pageantry of music and dance still relatively unknown to outsiders.
This film is an in-camera portrait of my niece, Mia Larose (who was six months old at the time) captured during a winter family reunion in Lac Saint-Charles, Québec.
Carolyn Sapp, Miss America 1992 (and a non-actress), plays herself in this drama based on her personal story of abuse and betrayal at the hands of the man she loved, Nu'u Fa'aola, a Samoan pro-football player for the New York Jets.
The new DA of a small town is given the job of prosecuting the alleged murderer of a stripper. Unfortunately, his own father is in charge of the defense.
Earthquakes and aftershocks forces a group of residents stranded at a party to reevaluate their lives, as one grueling situation after another, prompts surprise and comedy.
Buddhist monks Kampala (Golden Casmara) and Targhu (Hans Wanaghi) are traveling around seeking knowledge and expanding their martial arts skills in the lands they visit.
Michael Woods stars as Tony Giordani, a narcotics agent who learns that his wife has been murdered while he is recuperating from an attack by a mysterious stranger.
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Have you watched Neighborhood Tokyo yet? What did you think about it?
