For the first time in Australasia Marty Gross’s Mingei Film Archive Project
What better way to end a Clay Gulgong festival day than hunker down with a wine and popcorn to enjoy these fabulously restored archives?
Over the past 35 years, filmmaker Marty Gross has collected films and unedited film footage documenting celebrated British artist-craftsman, Bernard Leach and the origins of the Mingei (Folk Craft) Movement in Japan, which remains of enduring influence to this day.
The collection of films includes some early independent films and very significant unseen footage. Restored and enhanced, these films cover more than half a century in the development of this exceptional artistic and cultural movement.
The Mingei Project is particularly important because the films capture a pivotal time in history following Leach and such seminal Japanese figures as philosopher Soetsu Yanagi and potter Shoji Hamada, as they developed ideas that changed the direction of hand craftsmanship.
Evenings will be hosted by Moyra Elliott and will include the following films;
– Bernard Leach Films Mashiko and other Pottery Villages, Japan, 1934
– Hamada Shoji in Australia, 1965
– In the Land of the Morning Calm, 1925
– Mashiko Village, 1937
– Post-war Pottery Making in Tsuboya, Okinawa, 1964
– The Leach Pottery, 1952
– The Mingei Potters of Okinawa, 1940
The Mingei Project is an endeavour by Marty Gross of Marty Gross Film Productions Inc. to restore and enhance rare and unedited film footage documenting the life of British artist-craftsman Bernard Leach and the origins of the Mingei (Folk Craft) Movement in Japan. The following organizations, foundations and individuals are funding this project; Asahi Group Arts Foundation, Clark Center for Japanese Art & Culture, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Idemitsu Foundation, The Japan Foundation, Toronto Office, Kansai-Osaka 21st Century Association, The Museum of Ceramic Art/New York, Toshiba International Foundation, Yuyujin, K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation. Liza Dalby, John Gillespie, Paul Griffith, Inaba Yoshihiro, James Kasper, Warren MacKenzie, Nancy MacKenzie, Joan B. Mirviss, Tsue Ostermann, Toshi Fumiko, Andreas Vagelatos, Patti Warashina, Watanabe Mayumi.