CCJ Prototype

Masanori Oe (b. 1942) is a filmmaker, writer and translator. Moving to New York in his early twenties, between 1965 and 1968, he became involved in the Third World Studios together with Stan VanDerBeek and Jonas Mekas. Joining Marvin Fishman at Studio M2, Oe began filming protest activities as part of the Newsreel Collective. He participated in USCO’s psychedelic shows and translated his psychedelic experiences into his films ​Between the Frames (1​ 967) and Salome’s Children (​ 1968). Together with Yukihisa Isobe, he participated in the exhibition “Some More Beginnings” by E.A.T. at the Brooklyn Museum in 1968. His work in psychedelic culture and political activism came together in ​Great Society​ (1967), co-directed by Marvin Fishman, a six-screen collage of newsreel footage from the television broadcast company CBS who commissioned them to make it. Upon returning to Japan, he co-founded Newsreel Japan with filmmaker Masato Hara and photographers Takuma Nakahira and Kenji Kanesaka. They joined members of the collective Zero Jigen and others to halt the 1969 edition of Tokyo Film Art Festival at Sogetsu Art Centre on the grounds that the film festival’s competition format encouraged a hierarchy among films, an act that was met with controversy. He followed the collective Zero Jigen to shoot their film ​White Hare of Inaba​ (1970). He translated ​The Tibetan Book of the Dead,​ published in Japanese by Kodansha in 1974, and wrote extensively on his LSD experiences. He helped to found one of the first health-food stores in Japan and became an organic farmer. His works have recently been presented at Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.