Tell the Prime Minister
(Shusho kantei no mae de)
JAPAN / 2015 / Japanese, English / Color / Blu-ray / 109 min
Director, Producer: Oguma Eiji
Photography: Ishizaki Shunichi, People who recorded and made public footage of these events
Music: Jinta-la-Mvta
World Sales: Uplink
The movement to abolish nuclear power has gained momentum since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster, and yet the mass media has reported very little of the anti-nuclear demonstrations continuously held in front of the prime minister’s office. Nonethless, footage of these protests shot by people from various walks of life has flooded the internet. Combining these images with testimony from many of those involved, including the words of the prime minister at the time of the disaster, this film is a record of democracy as it faces crisis and undergoes renewal.
InterviewPaths of Families—Never Forgetting 3/11
(Kazoku no kiseki—3.11 no kioku kara)
JAPAN / 2015 / Japanese / Color / Blu-ray / 89 min
Director, Photography, Editing, Source: Onishi Nobuo
Sound: Ueno Hiroshi
Music: Sawa Tomoe
Contributing Editor: Takaishi Isao
A film without completion, this is an ever-evolving record of life at a temporary housing facility in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, which was hit hard by the 3.11 disaster. The director, a photographer, screens an updated version of the film every time he visits, and we discover that even as the mass media and the government try to relegate the disaster to the past, they are far from over for the people of the area.
Trace of Breath
(Iki no ato)
JAPAN / 2015 / Japanese / Color / Blu-ray / 112 min
Director, Photography, Sound, Source: Komori Haruka
The film follows the owner of a seed and sapling business in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, as he writes his thoughts and observations of the 2011 disaster down in English, of which he’s been a diligent student for years. It’s a film that could not have been made without the close relationship forged between the director, who moved from Tokyo to Rikuzentakata after the massive earthquake and tsunami, and her subject, who speaks calmly with no reserve.