Charting the explosion of transgressive art emanating from Japan from the 1960s onwards, Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers is a documentary deep dive into a fascinating subculture that emerged from the chaotic darkness of the Second World War. Filmmaker Amélie Ravalec speaks to trailblazers like Daido Moriyama, one of the founding members of ground breaking small-press photo magazine Provoke, university riot photojournalist Watanabe Hitomi and legendary pop artist Keiichi Tanaami— all offering trenchant insights into life as an outsider in a deeply conservative society. With context melding the deeply personal reasons for creative expression and the political turmoil that helped shape its form, this is a unique portrait of some of the 20th century's most influential artists.

Ravalec worked for over five years assembling this documentary— given that many of the participants are now in their 80s and several have passed on since their interview, it's a look back on a unique generation that's also a timely reflection in an era of increasing political unrest. The threads of connection through interdisciplinary art are carefully unpicked across Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers, highlighting cross pollination and the incredibly fertile environment in which “theatre spilled into the street. Photography became protest. Dancers worked with poster designers. Musicians scored experimental theatre.” Reverant without ever dipping into sentimentality, this is the next best thing to actually being there in an extraordinary world.