Children in the Classroom (1954)

Children in the Classroom 1954 / 教室の子供たち -学習指導への道- 1954 / Kyôshitsu no kodomotachi: gakushû shidô e no mich

A short documentary about the behavior of Japanese primary school students. Initially conceived as an instructional film on the discipline of troubled children, the Ministry of Education sponsored Children in the Classroom became an important showcase for Hani’s remarkable observational filmmaking, and a catalyst for decisive changes in Japanese documentary cinema. Boldly anticipating its Anglo-European counterparts of American direct cinema and French cinema vérité, Hani’s objective camera exhaustively and masterfully interrogated his subjects’ inner worlds. This sensational debut by the then only twenty-six-year-old Hani stunned documentary and educational film circuits in Japan, who heralded the young director as the emblem of a new breed of film artists. (Source: Harvard Film Archive)