This event has been ended and we have just released the event report and the archive video.

Passing on Our Cinematic Memories!

Yamagata City which joined in UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in the field of film, holds symposium “Yamagata Creative Cities International Conference” annually associated with other member cities to consider the possibilities or future of creative cities.

In 2025, Yamagata Creative Cities International Conference commemorates UNESCO’s World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, welcoming an expert from Busan, South Korea – a UNESCO Creative City of Film – along with leading figures in the field of film collection and preservation in Japan. We will share wisdom and ideas for protecting, preserving, utilizing, and passing on film materials to the next generation in the community.

“Yamagata Creative Cities International Conference 2025” was held as the special program within Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2025.

The event report and the archive video have released!

Outline of the Conference

■Date and Time: October 11^th (Sat), 2025  14:00～

■Venue: Yamagata Creative City Center Q1  (2F) 2-C event space (Honcho, Yamagata city)

■Capacity: 35 seats (No reservation required/ order of arrival)

Program

Part１　

Introduction of practices by Busan, Korea, Fukuoka city, Hiroshima city and Hamamatsu city　

Part２　Panel discussion

Part３　Q＆A

Panelists

Shin Sung-eun

Film Archive Manager, Busan Asia Film Archive – Busan Cinema Center

Shin Sung-eun has worked at CinemaTheque Busan since 2006 and has taken in a current position in 2009. She graduated from the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation in 2011, which co-located the George Eastman Museum in U.S.A. She is mainly responsible for collecting and preserving Asian classic works and the works screened in the Busan International Film Festival’s Competition section, “NEW CURRENTS.”

Chisato Inagaki

Art Coordinator, Kamoe Art Center, Hamamatsu City/Keisuke Kinoshita Memorial Museum

Chisato Inagaki completed postgraduate studies at the University of East Anglia, with MA in Film Studies in UK. She has worked at local public museums there. After returning to Japan, she has been involved with some art festivals such as “Kyoto International Photography Festival, KYOTOGRAPHIE 2021”, “Aichi International Art Festival, Aichi Triennale 2022”, and has been in a current position since 2023. She curates the screenings, displays and lectures, and also engages in promotion of Kinoshita’s works and preservation and utilization of visual cultural materials in regional cities.

Atsuko Morimune

Moving Image Culture Specialist, Hiroshima City Cinematographic and Audio-Visual Library

Atsuko Morimune has experienced working on film screenings, projection, editing film books and film festival secretariat since the 1990s. She has taken present post since April in 2024. In her career on film archive, she has devoted herself as a film curator at the Kawasaki City Museum from 2015 to 2018 and as a specified researcher in National Film Archive of Japan from 2020 to 2023, she has been involved in film preservation, primarily focusing on curating screening programs.

Keiji Matsumoto

Film Archivist, Fukuoka City Public Library Film Archive

Keiji Matsumoto has taken activities as a poet, while working as a video archiving technician. He also writes novels. He published his first poetry collection “Long Relief” in 1992. He collaborated on the screenplay for “Jesus in Nirvana” which was directed by Ido Kishu in 1998. He received The 14^th Hagiwara Shotaro Award for his poetry collection “ASTRONAUT” in 2006, followed by the Fukuoka City Culture Prize in 2010. His first collection of works “Matsumoto Keiji Selection” (total nine volumes) has begun publishing by Koshisha in 2017.

Commentator

Itaru Kato

Chairperson, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival

Itaru Kato was born in Tsuruoka city, Yamagata Prefecture. Emeritus professor, TOHOKU University Arts and Design, specializing in filmmaking and research of experimental and documentary movies. His 16 mm short film “SPARKLING” received Szigetvár Mayor’s Award at the “Redina 91” festival held in Hungary. Since the establishment of TOHOKU University of Arts and Design in 1992, he has been involved with Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival together with student volunteers, and has served as an executive committee member, director, and vice-chairperson, before assuming his current position in June 2024.

Facilitator

Kae Ishihara

Researcher, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival

Kae Ishihara graduated from the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation in 2001, Ph.D. in Archival Science. Archivist Certified by the National Archives of Japan. She serves as an adjunct lecturer at GAKUSHUIN University and WASEDA University. She won a Jean Mitry Award Pordenone Silent Film Festival in 2021. Her books include “History of Film Archiving in Japan” (2018, Bigaku Shuppan), and her translation of Paolo Cherchi Usai’s “Silent Cinema: A Guide to Study, Research, and Curatorship” (2023, Bigaku Shuppan).

Yamagata Creative Cities International Conference 2025
Related Screening

■ Screening work:  Film, the Living Record of Our Memory (2021)/Director: Inés Toharia Terán

■Date and Time:  October 10 (Fri), 2025  12:30～

■Venue:          Theater 1, Forum Yamagata (Kasumicho, Yamagata city)

■ Contact : Yamagata Creative City Promotion Council

Organizer :
Yamagata City, Yamagata Creative City Promotion Council, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival(NPO)

Supported by: Yamagata Autumn & Winter Arts Festival Committee