Youtube user forbesnation has put together a two-part documentary discussing “the Western influences and influence of legendary director Akira Kurosawa”. The work, which was made as a High School project, perhaps feels a bit patchy, but has nevertheless been edited together quite nicely. You will probably recognize the sources used for the video and much of the audio material.
For some reason, currently only Part 2 of the documentary is available.
Update: Part 1 is now available, and can be viewed here.
Certainly admirable because it was done by a high school student, but yes definitely patchy. I watched out of my own interest as a co-teacher for a high school doc class.
While I was impressed by how much material the student collected (albeit readily available) that was off set by the fact that he kept repeating the same bit of information, usually 3 times in a row, as in the John Ford influence and most of all in regards to Japan’s feelings regarding Kurosawa. We first hear it from the student, then AK himself and then Lucas… It was so obvisouly redundant…
Perhaps I am being too harsh but I am just annoyed as a whiney ol’ filmmaker.
The guy has got to be an AK fan nonetheless for what appears to be quite a bit of time and effort collecting and editing footage and facts, which is admirable and also cool to know that there are some teens out there that dig AK films.
It was also cool to see AK recieve the Oscar. I had not seen that before. What he said about not yet understanding cinema was wonderful and just the honest truth. How can we when it is still such a young art form?