is a Japanese experimental and avant-garde

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

. The

Harvard Film Archive The Harvard Film Archive (HFA) is a film archive and cinema located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dedicated to the collection, preservation and exhibition of film, the HFA houses a c ...

has called him "one of the most vital and inventive filmmakers in the history of Japanese underground film".

Career

Born the son of a farmer in

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

, Kanai graduated from the College of Art of

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

before finding work at

Daiei Film Daiei Film Co. Ltd. ( Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, producing ...

. He later became a freelance cinematographer and founded Kanai Productions in 1968. His first film, ''The Deserted Archipelago'' (1969, aka ''The Desert Island'') won the grand prix at the

Nyon International Documentary Film Festival Nyon (; outdated German: or ; outdated Italian: , ) is a municipality in Nyon District in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Gene ...

. His second film, ''Good-Bye'' (1971), was the "first post-war, post-liberation Japanese feature to be filmed in Korea," and according to the film scholar Oliver Dew, illustrated "how a surreal, decided non-representational approach could block the determinations of cultural essentialism". His 2003 work, ''Super Documentary: The Avant-Garde Senjutsu'', was awarded the

FIPRESCI The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...

award at the

International Short Film Festival Oberhausen The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, founded in 1954, is one of the oldest short film festivals in the world. Held in Oberhausen, it is one of the major international platforms for the short form. The festival holds an International C ...

. Kanai has been the subject of retrospectives at Oberhausen, the

Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival The Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival (LUFF) is a film festival and music festival devoted to underground film and music. It is held each year in Lausanne, Switzerland. The festival is organized by a non-profit organization (APCI � ...

, and the

Selected filmography

* ''The Deserted Archipelago'' (1969) * ''Good-Bye'' (1971) * ''The Kingdom'' (1973) * ''The Stormy Times'' (1991) * ''Super Documentary: The Avant-Garde Senjutsu'' (2003)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kanai, Katsu Japanese film directors 1936 births People from Kanagawa Prefecture Nihon University alumni Japanese experimental filmmakers Living people