Goshogaoka
1997·United States·63 min.
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Filmed in a middle school gymnasium in suburban Japan, GOSHOGAOKA takes as its ostensible subject the exercise routines and drills of a girls baskettball team. The film consists of six ten minutes takes, shot with a fixed camera at court level in which the various cadences of chanting voices and bodily movements digress into distinct studies. Taken together they construct a subtle and multi-layered social portrait, a portrait framed within a study of choreographed movement (the routines etc.) and therefore one in which documentary values soon become inseparable from aesthetic ones.
DirectorSharon Lockhart
ScreenwriterSharon Lockhart
MusicMichael Webster
CinematographyTatsuo Suzuki
CastNaomi Hasegawa·Eri Hashimoto·Emi Ishida·Yuka Ishigami·Yuki Kasami·Eri Kobayashi·Yuka Koishihara·Marie Komuro
Original titleGoshogaoka