Past Exhibitions

Date: April 12 (Tue) – July 10 (Sun)

Location: Exhibition Gallery (7th floor)

Hours: 11:00am-6:30pm (admission until 6:00pm)

Closed: Mondays, Jun. 13-17

Admission: Single Ticket 210(Group Admission 100)/ University & College Students, Seniors (age 65 or over) 70(Group Admission 40)
*Free for High School Students and under 18; Persons with disability and one person accompanying each of them are admitted free or charge.
Free on May.18.

For more detailed information, please see the following page (in Japanese).

  For 120 years since the invention of cinematography, movie theaters have been a special place for people to gather together in the dark, seeing the same "dream" with their eyes open. At present, however, with the shift in screening technique from film to digital projection, historical movie theaters, where our imagination has been fostered, are closing down one by one. Even so, many movie theaters or screening facilities are still tenaciously continuing conventional film projection all over Japan, as well as accepting new technologies.

 This exhibition introduces about 100 works by photographer Satoshi Chuma, who published his first photo book Eigakan (Movie Theaters) last year. Working as a film projectionist in Kansai, since 2007 Chuma has been traveling throughout Japan to shoot not just the buildings but also their projection booths or even explore the nooks and crannies of those places that exude an aura of cinema. Those works, mainly in monochrome, not only have value as documentation, but also show the extreme intimate senses of the space where cinema and ourselves have connected.

 Taking this opportunity, we are also displaying photographs of gorgeous movie theaters in the prewar era from NFC's collection to show how they led 20th century culture. It will be a great chance to recall the past memories of old films, rediscover what value films have held in society, and examine how cinema culture might look in the future.