The Sound of Waves
(Nami no oto)- JAPAN / 2011 / Japanese / Color / DCP / 142 min
Directors: Sakai Ko, Hamaguchi Ryusuke
Photography: Kitagawa Yoshio
Sound Editor: Hwang Young-chang
Production: Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts
Distribution: silent voice
This film was screened in 2011 when this program first began. As they traveled south to Kesennuma, Minamisanriku, Ishinomaki, Higashimatsushima, and Shinchimachi, which were pummeled by the tsunami, the directors made modern oral records of conversation with firefighters, lawmakers, and family members such as husbands, wives, and sisters. Directors Sakai and Hamaguchi made a trilogy of Tohoku documentary films, following this with Voices from the Waves and Storytellers (both 2013, YIDFF 2013). Sakai continues to work as a coodinator of Yamagata Rough Cut! and Hamaguchi has won international acclaim for films such as Drive My Car (2021).
Sakai Ko
After entering the director track program in the Graduate School of Film and New Media at Tokyo University of the Arts, he directed films such as Home Sweet Home (2006), and creep (2007, graduation film), and served as co-director with Hamaguchi Ryusuke on The Sound of Waves (2011, YIDFF 2011), Voices from the Waves, and Storytellers (both 2013, YIDFF 2013). Sakai is currently active in Sendai, where he is based.
Hamaguchi Ryusuke
Director of Happy Hour (2015), Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021, Berlin International Film Festival Silver Bear Award), Drive My Car (2021, Cannes International Film Festival Screenplay Award, Academy Award International Feature Film Award), he continues to work dynamically across regions and genres.
Tsushima: Fukushima Speaks Part 2
(Tsushima—Fukushima wa kataru, dai 2 sho—)- JAPAN / 2023 / Japanese / Color / Digital File / 193 min
Director, Photography, Sound, Producer: Doi Toshikuni
Distribution: Regard, LLC.
Following his previous work Fukushima Speaks (2019), this film collects the testimonies of residents who lost their land and livelihood due to the disaster at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The Tsushima district of Namie Town, Fukushima Prefecture is a small mountain village surrounded by the Abukuma mountain range. The nuclear accident forced the entire area to evacuate, and even after twelve years, most of the residents have not been able to return. Through the raw voices of people who have been forced from their homes, the film questions the meaning of community, family, and even life.
Doi Toshikuni
Born in Saga Prefecture in 1953, his documentaries include Breaking the Silence (2009), True to Myself (2010, YIDFF 2011), Life on Foreign Land (2013), and Fukushima Speaks (2019), the latter two of which received documentary film awards from the Agency for Cultural Affairs.