Licensing

Norman Yonemoto

Norman Yonemoto (b. 1946) has always been fascinated with the way that techniques of filmmaking can be used to affect an emotional response. He received an MFA in directing from the American Film Institute, and an undergraduate degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he used film to explore the turbulence of the late 1960s.

Second Campaign was made in 1969 when Yonemoto and Nicolai Ursin traveled to Berkeley to document the events around the struggle for People's Park. While the sympathies of the film lie with the protestors, the film is notable for being more prosaic and less didactic in its approach to the events, ultimately emphasizing the collective sense of celebration.

He would go on to work with his brother Bruce on a series of videos playing with the genre of television soap operas in the late 1970s and early 1980s and a series of landmark video-based installations throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Film still from “Second Campaign” (1969) by Norman Yonemoto and Nicholas Ursin. Courtesy of Norman Yonemoto.