mrex productions
"Filled with mystery, magical overtones, compassion, and profound respect, The Gatekeeper of Enmyoin is some of the most innovative documentary storytelling I’ve seen in a long time, with a brilliant musical score...”... more
Alan Berliner, filmmaker

This feature-length experimental narrative offers an extraordinary perspective on Japanese Buddhism and feminine identity; moreover, the film’s biography morphs into a suspenseful mystery with twists and turns worthy of a Murakami novel.... more
Deirdre Boyle, documentary critic, historian & professor

Synopsis
Teijun Ogawa, a proud and rare niso (female priest) of Japanese Shingon Buddhist Sect, dies after telling her story to Reiko and Max, a Japanese couple based in New York. She told them about her desolate life since she was given to a temple at the age of seven, and her achievement of building the Enmyoin temple single-handedly. But she refused to share her view as a woman—as if the subject was taboo. Upon hearing the arrival of a young heiress, as though guided by old Teijun, the couple revisits Enmyoin... more

©2006 MRex Productions. All Rights Reserved.
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This just came in!
Screening on 29th of May and June at Vesak 2010 - Buddhist Film Festival, Sri Lanka
for more info
Summer screening 2010 at Uno Port, Japan
@ Uno Port Art Film Forum
In the beginning of August, The GateKeeper of Enmyoin will be shown, along with other creative films, in an outside theater at Uno Port, Okayama, Japan. more info
Also, this fall, it will get started to be shown theaters in Japan, beginning in Tokyo, followed by other cities.

A Sneak Preview Screening at Nakano ZERO Hall, Tokyo
Audust 18th (Wed) 6:15pm~ (ticket 1000yen)

Okayama Film Festival Nov. 28th, 29th, 2009
The GateKeeper of Enmyoin was shown at the Special Closing Gala. Okayama Digital Museum. map
Okayama FF (in Japanese)

Free Video-On-Demand!
The GateKeeper of Enmyoin was on VOD (NGN-on-Demand) on Time Warner Cable Oceanic during the month of September 2009, as part of selected film series at Hawaii International Film Festival.


The three-night event which attracted the attention of Buddhist organizations and curious New Yorkers wrapped with full of enthusiastic audience... more
Engaging conversations between the filmmakers/Seijun Baba and curious crowd at the post-screening Q&A... more
Special thanks to the Vilcek Foundation that supports creative endeavors of foreign-born artists in the U.S.

The GateKeeper of Enmyoin was made possible in part by:
The Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, Jerome Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Corporation for Public Broadcasting through the Media Fund Program administered by The Center for Asian American Media, The Decentralization Program of the NYSCA and The Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs administered by The Brooklyn Arts Council, and private donors.