Never doubt a documentary filmmaker’s propensity to eke out the narrowest of niches. We’ve had films on spelling bees and İstanbullu kitties, but the latest comes to us from Japan, via France, and the story of the unlikely heroes of the 1964 Japanese Women’s Olympic volleyball team––and their still less likely second act in the world of anime. The Witches of the Orient offers some flare to go with that intriguing duality: a stylish structure in which footage of the team’s greatest feats are intercut with corresponding animations from the TV shows they later inspired.
Parisian filmmaker Julien Faraut is no stranger to this kind of ideas-filled archival work, having breathed fresh life into a different pile of footage, and a different temperament of sporting heroism, with In The Realm of Perfection in 2018––a rough gem about the tennis player John McEnroe and his defining loss at the 1984 French Open.
Parisian filmmaker Julien Faraut is no stranger to this kind of ideas-filled archival work, having breathed fresh life into a different pile of footage, and a different temperament of sporting heroism, with In The Realm of Perfection in 2018––a rough gem about the tennis player John McEnroe and his defining loss at the 1984 French Open.
- 2/22/2021
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
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