Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on September 2010

© Screen Runner

Believe it or not, the biannual Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival is one of the most prestigious in the world. If you can’t make the trip to northern Japan, the best of the fest is coming to Tokyo’s Eurospace (1-5 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku; www.eurospace.co.jp) and Pole Pole (4-4-1 Higashi-Nakano, Nakano-ku; www.mmjp.or.jp/pole2) from September 18-October 22. Most of the docs will be screened with English subtitles, including Because We Were Born (2008; pictured), about children struggling against poverty in Brazil, and Auto*mate (2009), about a grassroots movement in Prague to take over crowded highway lanes for bicycle use. Info: www.cinematrix.jp/dds2010.

Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com) is screening a series of alluring classics of cinema from September 18-24. Highlights include the seminal French films Rules of the Game (1939), a satire of the upper-classes by Jean Renoir, and Roger Vadim’s 1959 version of Dangerous Liaisons, which updated the classic story with jazz music by Thelonious Monk. Sid and Nancy (1986) and Straight to Hell (1987) by punk-inspired director Alex Cox are also in the lineup.

The sports documentary Eye Contact (2010) is screening at Pole Pole (4-4-1 Higashi-Nakano, Nakano-ku; www.mmjp.or.jp/pole2) from September 18. The film follows the 30 members of a women’s soccer team, made up of high school and university students, who travel to Taiwan to compete in the 2009 Deaflympics. The players hail from different parts of Japan and have varying levels of proficiency in sign language, but their common love of the sport allows them to communicate on the field.