A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities

 1) AlphaGo
    Year: 2017
    Source: Website/Trailer
    Comment: This feature length documentary made by about the match between Lee Sedol 
      and AlphaGo in March 2016 is being released world wide in autumn 2017. "AlphaGo" is
      also the title of a tune by Shanghai Restoration Project - YouTube.


       

 2) The Surrounding Game
    Year: 2017
    Source: Website/Trailer
    Comment: This feature length documentary made by US Go players Will Lockhart and Cole Pruitt  
      was released world wide in summer 2017 and was shown at the European Go Congress 2017.

       

 3) Weiqi Wonders: Conversations About the Game of Go in China 
    Year: 2012
    Source: Web page
    Comment: In this 50 minute documentary anthropologist Marc L. Moskowitz interviews people in 
      China in settings ranging from children's schools to China's elite Beijing University to a park 
      where retired working class men gather to play, from child educators to those reminiscing about 
      their own youth during the Cultural Revolution. What emerges is a fascinating cultural study as 
      people discuss children's education, retirement, China forty years ago and today. "As Chinese 
      politics have changed over the last two millennia, so too has the imagery of the game," 
      Moskowitz notes, "from a tool to seek religious enlightenment, to military metaphors, one of the
      noble four arts, one of the condemned 'four olds', nationalism, transnationalism, historical 
      elitism, and futuristic hyper rationality." 
 
      The film is "witness to people's lives, ranging from university students to working class senior 
      citizens, professional players, people who gave up professional careers to become students, 
      and a range of others who all share a love for this extraordinary game." Available on DVD. 

       

 4) Go (Japanese Embassy)
    Year: 1960 (circa)
    Comment: An educational film about Go, quite old but still worthwhile to see.

 5) Go Basics (American Ing Goe)
    Year: 1995
    Comment: From USA with Aan (Black) and Cliff (White). 14.30 minutes.

 6) Go More Than a Game
    Year: 1989 
    Source: Chip Taylor
    Comment: Made for Chip Taylor Communications by Kathi Twomey Wahen and Liz Manning. 
       Running time 12 Minutes. Describes the importance of the game Go to Asian culture 
       and its increasing popularity in the United States.

 7) Le Jeu de Go (The Game of Go)
    Year: 1991
    Source: YouTube
    Comment: Promotional film made by Fred Donzet for the FFdG and lasts 8.44 minutes.
      Shots of a busy Go club, stones being tipped on a board to music, art works, 
      how to play with stop action, scenes from the 1991 Paris Tournament, a couple playing 
      Go in a Japanese room and so on.

 8) Go (American Go Association)
    Year: ?
    Source: (http://www.usgo.org/)
    Comment: Go promotional film (made thanks to Hitachi).

 9) Go Lessons (Italian Go Federation)
    Year: 1999
    Directed by: Paolo Montrasio
    Produced by: FIGG (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Go)
    Source: (http://www.freespeech.org/figg/)
    Comment: Short streamline films with lessons for beginners,
      the set was due to be completed in 2000 and consists of
      several parts ranging from 5 to 10 minutes.

10) AGA Summer Camp
    Year: 1999
    Directed by: Jeff Shaevel
    Produced by: Mopac Media for the American Go Association
    Original music by: Brown, Bahler, Muhoberac and Zuker
    Cinematography by: Kevin Triplett
    Comment: High energy video promoting the AGA Summer Go Camp, a week-long event for children 
      5 to 17 years old that features professional instruction, tournament games and typical summer
      camp activities. The video is 7 minutes long with images taken at the camp and voice over by 
      a "camper" reading her letter to "Mom and Dad" - features sound bites from campers and
      counselors sprinkled throughout the video.

11) Hitachi & the AGA
    Year: 1999
    Produced by: Mopac Media for the American Go Association
    Comment: Video made for the promotion of Go

12) Ing & the AGA
    Year: 1999
    Produced by: Mopac Media for the American Go Association
    Comment: Video made for the promotion of Go

13) US Go Congress
    Year: 2000
    Produced by: Mopac Media for the American Go Association
    Comment: Video made for the promotion of Go

14) EGF Go Congress Zagreb
    Year: 2002
    Directed by: Zoran Mutabzjia (?)
    Produced by: Croatian IGo Alliance
    Source: (http://www.european-go.org/egc2002)
    Comment: Pictures, video clips and tournament results from Zagreb's 2002 EGC on CD-ROM and 
      2-hours VHS video tape.

15) Go Communication
    Year: 2003
    Produced by: Fureai Go Network
    Cast: Shigeno Yuki, Yasuda Yasutoshi, Michael Marz
    Comment: Film made to promote the work of Yasuda-sensei with 
      English Subtitles (24 mins).

16) 1 minute 2 Go
    Year: 2011
    Produced by: European Go and Cultural Centre 
    Cast: Marika Dubiel, William Wandell
    Comment: An on going series of Go promotion films all 60 seconds long.

17) Une Honorable Partie de Go
    Year: 1979
    Comment: Documentary shown on French TV (20th March) that introduced 
      the game to many from France and Belgium. It looked at the game's 
      relationship with oriental warfare and history. 

18) Graines de Champions
    Year: 2010
    Source: FFdeGo
    Comment: Another of Frederick Donzet's 15 films for the French Go Federation. 
      A 20 minutes documentary, made over five years, about Thomas Debarre and 
      Antoine Fenech.

19) The Album Leaf - Within Dreams
    Year: 2012
    Source: YouTube
    Comment: This short video (Tourne en un apres-midi), made for a university project by
      French 3d Pierre Bellanger, features a romance between a girl who studies Go on a park 
      table and a footballing boy who is intrigued by what she is doing. The music played 
      over the top is as the title.
    

 1) Chinese Advert
    Year: 199?
    Comment: A Chinese advert for a liquor, in which, after drinking, the main character plays a move 
       to show "spirit".

 2) Promo for the Channel
    Year: 2003
    Produced by: CCNTV
    Comment: On CCNTV9 (the English language edition of the Chinese state TV channel). In a 
       brief "jingle" a Go board is seen many times. (11th March roughly at 07:30)

 3) Domino's Pizza
    Year: 2009
    Source:  YouTube
    Comment:  An actor playing "Rick Rossner World's Smartest Man", IQ 200, (and looking like the 
       world's real most intelligent man, Rick Rosner) sits with a boy at a white table and chairs with 
       his sandwich. He had has presumably just beaten the boy at Go, as the boy (an average fifth 
       grader, IQ 100) sweeps the stones off the board. 

       

 4) X-Box Kinect
    Year: 2011
    Comment:  A mini Go ban with bowls is visible on a table in the first scene of this ad, showing a 
       couple sitting on a sofa in their lounge. 

 5) Daum Mobile Phone
    Year: 2013
    Source:  YouTube
    Comment:  This Korean ad features a young Go addict who cannot sleep and is restless in life as 
       he relies on using the elevator doors in his apartment block to mark out games in pen in between
       real games. His mind is put at rest by the friendly janitor who recommends the smart phone, 
       presumably with Go apps.

          
 
 6) Daum Mobile Phone
    Year: 2013
    Source:  YouTube
    Comment:  This Korean ad in the same series as the previous one includes graphics of cartoon 
       people standing on a Go ban and shots of the young man playing at a table board with bowls.

          

 6) Candy Crush Soda
    Year: 2015
    Source:  YouTube
    Comment:  This Korean ad shows Cho Hunhyun 9p sitting in a Baduk Club with games going on in
      the background. He is concentrating hard and reaches out with his Go-playing fingers, but then
      reveals he is playing Candy Crush on his phone and is pleased by the winning move he makes.

       

 A) Japanese girl rock band Band-Maid feature a quick shot of a Go board in the video for their
    2018 song Domination. There are various quick shots of games, such as dice, cards and a 
    game a bit like Monopoly, as will as a hand placing a Go stone at1:06 in.
    Source: YouTube 
    

 B) K-Pop band GFriend appear in a video of their 2017 song "Love Whisper" dancing in a Korean 
    Baduk club. The players of Jingwu Kiwon, near Seoul, ignore the dancers and concentrate on 
    their games. However some of the close-up shots are of 5-in-a-Row and some of the girls can
    be seen playing this at the end.
    Source: YouTube 
    

 C) French pop-rock group OmEgA in their 2012 song video "Au Couer Des Limbes" features Go 
    heavily. We see a Go board leaning against the drums with stones stuck to it, the lead singer 
    (dressed in black playing White) playing a young lady (dressed in white playing Black) with him 
    banging the board, and spinning Go stone graphics and so on. 
    Source: YouTube 

          

 D) The film "Topsy-Turvy" (1999) about the famous operetta authors Gilbert and Sullivan, which won 
    two Oscars, briefly features not Go, but a Go player from our London clubs. He is Tokumi Ayzen 
    (Takahashi). He is the Japanese calligrapher inside the Liberty's exhibition and speaks just one 
    line (in Japanese: "I don't understand English"). Ayzen-san is 3-dan and is a well known artist 
    by profession. 
    Source: IMDB

 E) The actor Michael Culver is a British Go player who holds the rank of 1-dan. He played the role of 
    Captain Needa in "Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back". Lorth Needa was captain of the star 
    destroyer Avenger in the Battle of Hoth, and was killed after apologising to Darth Vader for
    allowing Han Solo's Millennium Falcon to (as he thought) escape. Once, in a BBC period flying drama
     called "Squadron", he played an RAF officer. He had to read a magazine and selected a copy of 
     "Go Review" and in another had to carry a book around, he made sure that he carried a copy of 
     one of the Ishida Dictionaries. He is believed to be seen playing Go in the TV drama "Diamonds".

 F) Go often features in questions in TV quiz shows. On 5th June 2002 on US quiz show "Jeopardy", 
    under the category 'Two Letter Words' they showed a short video clip of a pair of staff playing Go, 
    described as a Japanese game, which was easily answered by one of the contestants. The brief 
    view of the game was enough to determine that it was not a real game played, merely a few 
    formations of stones. It was also the  topic of a round on 13th December 2010 with questions on 
    its origin, rules and terminology.

    In the UK there have been questions on "The Weakest Link", "Mastermind", "15 to 1", "Eggheads",
    "Only Connect" and "University Challenge".

    One of the quiz experts on "Eggheads" is Barry Simmons who is 1 kyu and his son Mark was youth
    champion when at school.

 G) On BBC News, 31st July 2002: A story about the Hikaru no Go craze among Japanese children. 
    It shows lots of children playing and interviews one who plays Go as well as video games. It 
    shows the Hikaru books and clips of the anime and features an interview with Umezawa Yukari, 
    the Go consultant for the series.
    Source: YouTube

          

 H) In a news programme on Italian State TV (third channel, 2002): Mediamente (RAI3 8:35-9:05), 
    inside an item about strategy games on internet there was a brief mention about Go. Yahoo games
    was briefly shown, and a Go board with some stones on it.

 I) BBC's weeknight current affairs program "Newsnight" presented a special edition on the Chinese 
    economy on 18th February 2010. The graphics in the studio featured Go games, reporters were 
    seen seated at Go bans and graphics showed Go stones with images of flags or world leaders 
    pictured on them.

          

 J) Various documentaries from time use Go stone and board graphics as visual tools to explain some
    scientific concept, such as Conway's Game of Life or in 2018 entropy on PSB's "SpaceTime".

    

 K) On UK's Channel 4 show "Countdown" on 5th, 6th and 9th May 2011, contestant Tony Atkins is 
    introduced as the Secretary of the EGF, and Go and the WMSG 2008 get mentioned.


 L) Rhubarb the Clown (aka Martin Solity 5k) appeared on ITV's "Midsommer Murders" 
    on 14th January 2020. In circus-themed episode 6 of series 20, "Send in the Clowns", 
    Rhubarb is one of three clowns seen in the last scene of the episode.


 M) One of the interviewees in the 2020 documentary "Beyong the Visible: Hilma af Klint", 
    about the Swedish artist, has a Go board and bowls in their room.