The fourth and final webinar in the Rethinking of MA Webinar Series will examine the role of MA in Japanese film. Our guest will be filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, whose film Drive My Car, is Japan’s official entry for Best International Feature Film for Academy Awards 2022 and is now on the Oscars shortlist for this category. Hamaguchi, a renowned director and screenwriter who first gained attention for The Sound of Waves and Voices from Waves, his thoughtful documentaries (co-directed by Ko Sakai) about survivors of the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake, as well as several recent dramatic full-length feature films, pays close attention to timing, pacing and “space” in his films.
The third webinar in the Rethinking of MA Webinar Series will examine conceptions of MA in contemporary Japanese cuisine. Our guest will be Prairie Stuart-Wolff, a writer, photographer and producer of the Japanese food and culture website www.cultivateddays.co. Living and learning in rural Japan, among a community of ceramic artists, she has developed a unique perspective on Japanese food cultivation, preparation, and presentation, both traditional and contemporary. Professors Hitoshi Abe and Ken Tadashi Oshima, hosts of the Rethinking of MA series, will moderate the conversation with Stuart-Wolff, discussing the importance of MA/seasonality in the choice of ingredients, MA/the symbiotic relationship between food and the dishes in which it is served, and the rituals of the table that guide how food is received.
