While perhaps most well-known for his debut feature I’VE HEARD THE AMMONITE MURMUR (which screened at Spectacle last December), Isao Yamada has, since 1977, created over one hundred experimental short film-poetries in a collection he calls Yamavicascope. These films emphasize the “non-digital optical sensation” produced by the 8mm (and occasionally 16mm) film upon which they are shot, and hand-edited, by Yamada. This emphasis on materiality is seen throughout Yamada’s other artistic output, which includes paintings, manga, graphic design, and a calligraphic font known as “Yamada-moji,” which he uses for the titles and type in his films.

This March, Spectacle is honored to present a two-night Yamavicascope retrospective; these four programs, titled by Yamada himself, invite a career-spanning glimpse into the director’s “private films.”

Yamada was 21 years old when he joined the Tenjo Sajiki theater troupe, known as one of the most provocative forces in the newly-emerging angura scene. The troupe was co-founded and led by Shuji Terayama; Yamada credits his relationship with Terayama and working on the art direction of his features as his awakening to film. Following this awakening, Yamada co-founded the Gingagahou-sha Film Club in Sapporo, Japan with manga artist Yumekichi Minatotani. The works in this program make up some of Yamada’s earliest forays into film and introduce his first major collaborator in Minatotani.

Full lineup here: https://www.spectacletheater.com/yamavicascope/#iy1