Makoto Satō (佐藤真 ''Satō Makoto'', September 12, 1957 - September 4, 2007) was a Japanese

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

. Among his best-known films were ''Living On the River Agano'', which describes people around the

Agano River The is a river system in the Hokuriku region of Honshu, Japan. It is also called the Aga River or the Ōkawa River in Fukushima. It is designated as a Class A river. The source of the river is Mount Arakai on the border of Fukushima and Toc ...

where incidents of Niigata Minamata disease were discovered, and ''Self and Others''. His final film, ''Out of Place: Memories of

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of Postcolonialism, post-co ...

'' (2005), was named Best Documentary at the 2006

Mainichi Film Awards The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by '' Mainichi Shimbun'' (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of ...

Early life

Satō was born in

Hirosaki is a Cities of Japan, city located in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 163,639 in 71,044 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Hirosaki developed as a jōkamachi, ca ...

Aomori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori (city), Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is border ...

, and raised in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Filmography

* '' Living on the River Agano'' (1992, 阿賀に生きる) * '' Artists in Wonderland'' (1998, まひるのほし) * '' Self and Others'' (2000, SELF AND OTHERS) * '' Hanako'' (2001, 花子) * '' Memories of Agano'' (2004, 阿賀の記憶) * '' Out of Place: Memories of Edward Said'' (2005, エドワード・サイード OUT OF PLACE)

References

External links

An English-language interview with Sato

Towards a Cinema of Absence - Satō Makoto in the Japanese and international context
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sato, Makoto 1957 births 2007 deaths Japanese documentary film directors Japanese documentary filmmakers Japanese film directors