How A Former Senior Netflix Staffer Launched One Of Japan’s Buzziest Indie Cinemas

Director Lee Chang-dong’s beautiful genre mash-up, Possible Love; Dario Argento’s Giallo classic, Suspiria; and Sophy Romvari’s accomplished debut, Blue Heron, are some of the titles Japanese cinephiles can catch this week at Cineyama, one of the country’s buzziest new indie cinema venues.

Located in Yamanashi Prefecture, just outside Tokyo, CineYama is a unique proposition in Japan’s indie film scene: The venue sits at the site of a former kindergarten, and its founder, Matt Kelson, is American. He is also a former senior Netflix staffer.

“I worked there about 11 years in total,” Kelson explains of his lengthy Netflix tenure. “In LA, I started on the product team and was responsible for all the artwork you’d see on the service. We worked with design agencies around the world. Netflix then opened a screenings team with the advent of Netflix Originals. I joined and was responsible for film festival screenings. Eventually, I moved to Japan to manage screenings across APAC.”

After a series of regional cuts, Kelson was laid off from Netflix, but was keen to stay in Japan with his family. The Michigan native had previously run an indie film space in Detroit and decided he would begin to look for a suitable venue where he could launch a similar project in Japan.

Kelson landed at the former Sawamatsu Kindergarten in Uenohara City, Yamanashi Prefecture. The building had been abandoned for 10 years and had the perfect amount of space to build upon.

“Finding the space was pretty quick,” he explains. “I met someone who owned another business in town, and she introduced me to the city government. They were really excited to show me different buildings, including a couple of old schools.”

“I had to pitch the idea to the city government. They thought it was interesting, and then, to make the process fair, they created an open call so anyone could pitch to use the space,” Kelson adds.

“A group of about 12 people in the city government judged the proposals. No one else applied—it was just me. The whole process took about three months of back-and-forth meetings before they gave me the stamp of approval.”

Kelson was then tasked with pitching his idea to the local residents’ council, which had to give unanimous approval.

“It took two sessions before everyone was on board,” he says. “The first one was a little contentious, but I was able to calm people down and explain what I was doing.”

Kelson says residents of the suburban neighborhood were afraid the cinema would attract too much traffic and disrupt local life.

“I reassured them that it was only 43 seats and wouldn’t be that disruptive. I was able to get everyone on board,” Kelson explains.

After a full year of renovations and consultations, the cinema officially opened its doors in the Spring as a 43-seat venue with digital, 35 and 16mm projection.

“We’ve had over 3,000 people come since opening, which was a lot more than I expected in the first six months. I’ve been really happy with that,” Kelson explains.

Kelson describes the cinema’s current programming as “experimental.”

“We’re seeing what works and what doesn’t. For the most part, I’m trying to show more international titles, because a lot of Japanese cinemas have moved toward showing mostly Japanese content,” he says. “As a foreigner here, I want to show other cultures and ways of life, and keep CineYama’s perspective very international, while also showing some Japanese films—usually more independent ones.”

In recent years, Uenohara City, which sits just an hour west of Tokyo, has become an increasingly popular destination for young families looking to escape the speed and cost of the capital. As such, Kelson explains that some of CineYama’s best-performing titles have been children’s films.

“I played the new Bluey movie not too long ago, and it did really well,” he explains, adding he has been pleasantly surprised by the interest in arthouse titles.

“In June, I did a whole Tarkovsky series, showing six of his films. We got 160 people to come, which amazed me out here in Yamanashi,” Kelson says. “People tend to get excited about titles that are a little rare to see.”

In the new year, CineYama and Kelson will begin a new challenge: distribution. Kelson plans to launch a location distribution outfit, based out of the cinema.

“The first title will be Burden of Dreams, Les Blank’s film about Werner Herzog making Fitzcarraldo,” Kelson says.

“It was surprisingly never released in Japan, so I reached out to Les Blank’s son and found the rights. I’m going to show it. It’s a film I thought about throughout the whole building process: this wild story about a guy in the jungle trying to build an opera house.”

The film will begin its first local run at CineYama before rolling out nationwide to other smaller theaters.

When asked what advice he would give to other film exhibition upstarts, Kelson says everything “starts with the location.”

“You need to find somewhere that works as a cinema and has the specifications for a big screen, but can also tell a story,” he says.

“With any location I’ve looked at, it’s been important that it’s already part of the community—somewhere that can get people excited to visit. A box that’s just a cinema isn’t exciting for people anymore. You can watch films in your room at home. It has to be an experience people can form memories around.”