[2003]

Hibakusha—At the End of the World

(“Hibakusha—Sekai no owari ni”)
Director: KAMANAKA Hitomi

2003 Japanese, English, Arabic Subtitled in English Color 16mm 116 min

Production Company: Group Gendai Films Co., LTD.
Producers: KOIZUMI Shukichi, KAWAIDA Hiroyuki
Photography: IWATA Makiko, IETSUKA Makoto
Editing: KAMANAKA Hitomi, MATSUDA Yoshiko
Sound: KAWASAKI Koichi
Music: Christoph Heemann		   International Sales: Group Gendai Films Co., LTD.
Trust Shinjuku Bldg. 4F 1-11-13 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo 160-0022 JAPAN
Phone: 81-3-3341-2863
Fax: 81-3-3341-2874
E-mail: distribution@g-gendai.co.jp
URL: www.g-gendai.co.jp

[Festivals and prizes] Yamagata IDFF 2003

[Synopsis] Nuclear radiation spreads around the globe irrespective of national borders. In Iraq, depleted uranium shells from the Gulf War are believed to be causing the numerous cases of leukemia and cancer. In Hiroshima today, over fifty years after the atomic bomb was dropped, victims suffer from residual nuclear radiation. Downwind from the nuclear facility in Hanford, Washington in the U.S., citizens fall ill from radioactive pollution. With no choice but to live on contaminated land, ordinary people fall victim to internal radiation exposure from groundwater and agricultural produce, and their faces of joy and suffering prompt us to contemplate humanity’s future.


KAMANAKA Hitomi

Completed her first independently directed film in 1990, Balinese Days. With the help of a grant from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, joined the National Film Board of Canada. There, she had the opportunity to work on (with both appearances and editing contributions) Canadian director Bruce Gottlieb’s Proposal for Dog Brain. Thereafter, moved to New York and joined Paper Tiger. Returned to Japan in 1995 and went on to direct numerous works including Iwanami Production’s When Disaster Strikes Our Cities (1995), NHK’s Comfort for Maladies of the Soul—What Has Become of the Japanese Family? (1998), Children and the Ravages of War—Iraq Eight Years after the Gulf War, Ende’s Last Will and Testament—Questioning the Origin of Money (1999), and Living with Cancer—Documenting the Hope Provided by Medicine (2001).

• KAMANAKA Hitomi | Hibakusha—At the End of the World | Letter from Rokkasho Village no. 1–no. 3