The Japan Foundation, London partnered with Birkbeck, University of London to present a two-part event: “Japanese Documentary Filmmaker Haneda Sumiko: Authorship and Gender Discourses”.

Two symposia were convened featuring speakers from around the globe speaking on the highly influential film maker Haneda Sumiko. The speakers covered a wide range of disciples and fields including Gender Studies, Film Studies and Authorship.

The first symposium was held on July 22^nd. Professor Koji Toba (Waseda University) gave the opening talk entitled, Visualising Invisible Contamination: Haneda Sumiko's TV Programs on Environmental Pollution. This was followed by two panels discussing various aspects of Haneda’s work.

Attendees were also able to view a rare online screening of one of Haneda’s works, Into the Picture Scroll-The Tale of Yamanaka Tokiwa (2004).

The second Symposium, which took place on September 30t, saw a full day schedule. The event was opened by Professor Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano (Kyoto University) with his talk, Making Meaning of Haneda's 'Japanese Women': A Women's College in the Village (Mura no fujin gakkyu, 1957) and The Cherry Tree with Gray Blossoms (Usuzumi no sakura, 1977).

 The speakers throughout the day were interspersed with screenings of The Work of Haneda Sumiko: Notes on the Circulation and Distribution of Japanese Documentary and Dedicated Treasures of Horyuji-Temple (Hōryūji ken'nō hōmotsu, 1971). The day was closed with a roundtable discussion looking at multiple aspects of Haneda and her work and a look forward to future research on Haneda Sumiko.

Finally, participants were able to view another work of Haneda online The Japanese Settlers to the Manchuria and Inner Mongolia of Mainland China (Aa Manmō Kaitaku-dan, Haneda Sumiko, 2008).