Tanaka-san Will Not Do Callisthenics

Tanaka Tetsuro, a Buddhist and former president of the corporation’s mandolin club, continues his daily protest against his dismissal, in front of a big Japanese corporation. He has done this for over 25 years.

Is Tanaka an obsessive? Intrigued, the filmmakers travel from Australia to meet the man whose justice campaign has outlasted 14 Japanese prime ministers and at least three company presidents. With humour, poignancy and optimism the film offers a fascinating portrait of an idiosyncratic Japanese non-conformist

][ Awarded CLiFF/Machinists Union Best-in-Festival Prize ][

Canada 2009
The 2009 festival runs November 22-28 in Toronto and November 28-29 in the rest of Canada. Audiences from the following locations can view Tanaka-San Will Not Do Calisenthics at the inaugural Canadian Labour International Film Festival:

Burnaby, BC | Ingersoll, ON | Toronto, ON | Victoria, BC

Tanaka-san Will Not do Callisenthics was filmed in Japan and tells the story of Tanaka-san who was dismissed from his job 25 years ago when he refused to conform – and what happens when he protests at his old factory every day. A fabulous films that you can’t see at your local movie theatre so please join us at CLiFF. You’ll also be participating in this first labour film festival for Canada so you’ll be a part of history.

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On a happier note, CLiFF’s audience-award winner was Tanaka-san will not do Calisthenics, about a Tokyo man who was fired for refusing to take part in daily morning exercises in his office. During the film, Tanaka invites viewers to visit him. Some of the viewers of this film at the festival are planning to do just that; it is their hope that outsiders such as ourselves might be able to have some influence on his case by lodging complaints with his former employer.

Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival

selected for New Docs Japan section:

Presenting ten films that penetrate Japanese society from multiple perspectives, by accomplished directors including those who reside abroad, and those who originate from abroad. The gazes and expressions of filmmakers who continue tackling documentary film—that experiment in memory of the past—resonate in the land of Yamagata.

6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, California, USA (also showing July 12)

This striking film shows the struggle of Japanese Electric Manufacturing worker and singer Tetsuro Tanaka. Tanaka refused to accept the militarization of his job through calisthenics and the mind control of the company. As result, he is harassed and fired by the company. Rather than giving up, he decides to sing every day in front of the factory. He has continued this battle for 28 years, and in the process, has exposed the nature of this corporate management system.

Tanaka has been to LaborFest before, and his music continues to ring out. His words “Never import the corporate fascism of Japan!” continue to have meaning.

see LaborFest 2009

Tanaka-san Will Not Do Callisthenics was selected for the Documentary Panorama of the 53rd Corona Cork Film Festival, Cork, Ireland

Believing he was sacked unjustly from his job as an engineer in a big Japanese corporation and demanding his position back, Tanaka Tetsuro has protested outside the company’s front gate every workday morning for over a quarter of a century … Australian filmmaker Maree Delofski travelled to Japan in time for the 25th anniversary of his protest.

Wondering what fuels his determination?; in a world that places a premium on conformity, Delofski discovered that Tanaka-San has found a way to ‘become himself’.