Kazuo Hara

Hara has described his approach to filmmaking as "action documentary", rejecting the idea that documentary filmmakers should remain detached or objective. Explaining his methods, Hara describes "initiating things": "I believe that to take action with your body means to see things that you would otherwise not be able to see... I want to take action with my body, because a body that takes action is a wonderful thing. We want to see what will unfold when the camera takes action, when bodies take action." Film scholar Markus Nornes similarly describes Hara's cinema as the record of an encounter between filmmaker and subject, in which Hara's presence becomes part of the reality being depicted. Hara's methods have also raised questions about the ethics of documentary film. His work frequently explores highly private situations – as in Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 – and he continues filming during moments of conflict, vulnerability, or violence – as in The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On. These ethical questions can becomes part of the films themselves: in Goodbye CP, the wife of the film's subject objects on camera to the filmmakers' methods, arguing that their representation of disability risks reinforcing discrimination. Nornes describes this sequence as part of the film's self-reflexivity, leaving its strategy open to criticism: "In the film's most striking and controversial scene, Yokota strikes out into the public realm without a wheelchair... and without clothing. He literally drags his naked body down the street. The film has a remarkable level of self-reflexivity, which exposes Hara to, indeed, invites criticism of, the filmmakers' unorthodox strategy of empowerment through representation. In an extraordinary scene, Yokota's wife, who suffers from the same disease, threatens divorce if the filmmaking does not stop. She argues forcefully that such aggressive tactics are only playing to the camera as a monstrosity."