John and Miyoko Davey Classics

Since its inception in the early 1970s, Japan Society Film has served as a nationally renowned resource for the study of Japanese cinema, pioneering the appreciation and understanding of Japan’s film culture at a time when international recognition of the country’s cinema was still nascent. While Japan Society’s repertory film programming gained new momentum and institutional support in the ’70s as a full-fledged program, the Society has actively introduced Japanese cinema to New York audiences since its first film screening in 1922, presenting works by masters such as Shohei Imamura, Seijun Suzuki, and Hiroshi Teshigahara upon their first release, and curating groundbreaking retrospectives on now canonical figures such as Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu. A commitment to the year-round exhibition of classic Japanese cinema, John and Miyoko Davey Classics continues this crucial work with the aim to uphold and rediscover essential works of Japanese film, from the silent era and golden age to the nuberu bagu (new wave) and beyond.