村の婦人学級 / Mura no fujin gakkyu (Village Women's Classroom)

Haneda Sumiko was born in 1926 in Dalian, China (soon to be Japanese occupied Manchuria). Her career began at Iwanami Productions, a company making educational and promotional films, founded in 1950. Over three decades, Haneda made over eighty films as an Iwanami employee. The first of these was Mura no fujin gakkyu, a film commissioned by the Ministry of Education to promote women’s education across Japan. Haneda spent more than forty days in the village of Iwane, working together with local women to depict their study group. Describing her approach, Haneda writes, “When making a documentary film, filmmakers have different attitudes toward filmmaking and they approach the issues in a variety of ways. In my view, when shooting a film of residents, it is important to bear in mind that you are building a lifelong relationship.”