Cinematic Sports Documentary: History, Politics, Aesthetics
Witness the beauty and rich drama on display at the 1964 Summer Olympics with Kon Ichikawa's groundbreaking documentary that ranges from the expansive to the intimate. Q&A to follow.
Kon Ichikawa’s Tokyo Olympiad paints a stunning picture of emotion and spectacle in capturing the 1964 Olympic Games, held in Tokyo. A feat of cutting-edge technology and cinematography, the film engages with the drama already inherent to sport, offering a vision of triumph and grief—in short, what makes the Games human—instead of results. Ichikawa’s insistence on the human, the poetic, and the aesthetic makes this a landmark film in documentary filmmaking. [169 min; documentary; Japanese with English subtitles]
A Q&A with Dr. Hannah Airriess (IU Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures) and Dr. Brandon Wallace (IU Media School) will follow the screening.
“[Kon Ichikawa is] equally concerned with defeat as he is with victory, finding a compassionate nobility in the losers and their need to compete and struggle in the face of impossible odds.” — Nathanael Hood, The Retro Set
"Tokyo Olympiad is a stunning testament—both to the Olympic athletes it focuses on, and the craft of artistic documentary filmmaking." — Scott Weinberg, Apollo Guide
“A visual marvel of cinematic techniques, many of which were groundbreaking at the time in terms of what was acceptable for a sports documentary.” — James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk
Any film screened at IU Cinema may contain content that viewers find sensitive or upsetting. Visit our Audience Advisories page to learn more.
