These films are silent and in quicktime. When they were first shown, each film was submitted to the censors, who often demanded changes—sometimes marginal and sometimes quite substantial. The censors also specified that no benshi could accompany the screenings. Benshi were screenside narrators that would surely whip the spectators' political passions into a storm. Banning the benshi would deprive the films their ability to convert audiences into activists. Thus, instead of the screenside narrator, the filmmakers brought records of German worker songs to the screenings and played them as background music. This is something you can do as well. An online collection of German worker songs can be found at Arbeiterlieder-online. We find the "International" is ideal music for Prokino's May Day film.

When watching the films here are some convenient keyboard shortcuts:

• Play/pause = Space bar
• Play movie backward = Shift & double-click
• Go back one frame = Left arrow
• Go forward one frame = Right arrow
• Go to beginning of movie = (Mac) Option & left arrow or (Windows) Control-Alt & Left Arrow
• Go to end of movie = (Mac) Option & right arrow or (Windows) Control-Alt & Right Arrow

Yamamoto Senji kokubetsushiki (Yamamoto Senji's Farewell Ceremony, 1929, 9.5mm, 1:51 min.) [13.8 meg | 1 meg]

On March 3, 1929 activist Yamamoto Senji was killed by a right wing assassin. Yamamoto Senji was the son of a famous ryotei in Kyoto. He was a doctor and scientist, and known for promoting birth control. After an autopsy at Tokyo University, a procession took his body to a public hall for a funeral. This is a documentary recording that procession.

Yamasen Watamasa ronoso (Yamamoto Senji Watanabe Masanosuke Worker-Farmer Funeral, 1929, 16mm, 10:59 min.) [70.8 meg | 3.2 meg]

After cremation, Yamamoto's ashes were taken back to his home at Kyoto. Around the same time as Yamamoto's death, another left-wing leader named Watanabe Masanosuke committed suicide. Watanabe was the chair of the Communist Party's central committee and had been in Shanghai holding a meeting. He stopped in Taiwan on his way home when the people around him were all arrested. Tipped off by a spy, the police surrounded Watanabe as he was waiting at a port for a ferry home. He turned a pistol on himself and committed suicide. A combined funeral procession for both leaders was held in Kyoto. Along the route Prokino members from both Tokyo and Kyoto shot the footage for this film. It is said that all the taxis in Kyoto formed a line that started at Kyoto Station and ran slowly to Yamamoto's home, a scene captured toward the end of the film. One can also see many leaders of the left in Kyoto, such as economist Kawakami Hajime.

Tochi (Earth, 1931, 16mm, 5:39 min. fragment) [37.5 meg | 2.5 meg]

The plight of poor landowners in rural areas was one of the issues Prokino took up. Tochi is largely lost, with the exception of this fragment. It is a semi-documentary fiction film about a 4-year long struggle in Toyama Prefecture that involved the combined efforts of farmers and workers. Directed by Ko Shukichi and photographed by Oka Hideo.

Dai junikai Tokyo Me De (12th Annual Tokyo May Day, 1931, 35mm, 6:47 fragment) [44.5 meg | 2.1 meg]

Iwasaki Akira coordinated the entire Tokyo Prokino organization as it photographed the 1931 May Day celebrations. They shot in both 16mm and 35mm (other 35mm productions were planned, but this is the only one that achieved completion). A 16mm print was circulated around the countryside by mobile projection units, and a 35mm print was shown at Soviet film nights in Tokyo and Osaka. Unfortunately, only the first half of the film is extant. The rest shows the end of the parade route and a rally in Ueno Park. Although Prokino shot May Day parades between 1927 and 1932, this is the only remaining film. A print was given to the Soviet cultural attaché in Tokyo, but this print is also missing.

Zensen (All Lines, 1931, 16mm, 8:24 min.) [54.4 meg | 2.5 meg]

This was a news film with elements of reenactment. The scenario and direction was by Furukawa Ryo, and the film was photographed by Oka Hideo and Arashi Genkai (a resident Korean who was later known as the cameraman Inoue Kan). From December 1927 to 1932, 2,000 bus and train drivers were fired, provoking a strike. This film was edited out of footage shot from that strike over a long period.

Supotsu (Sports, 1932, 16mm, 7:14 min.) [47.2 meg | 2.2 meg]

This is, strictly speaking, not a Prokino film. It was produced by the Waseda University Film Circle, which was organized by Kawazoe Shiro. Feature film directors Yamamoto Satsuo and Taniguchi Senkichi were apparently students at Waseda at the time and participated in the production. The film is about a protest provoked when the university decided to restrict access to sports facilities to athletes, cutting out all other students.