Little Voices from Fukushima
Dir. Hitomi Kamanaka, Japan, 119min, 2015, color, documentary.
This film investigates the impact of the 3/11 nuclear disaster on mothers and children living in the post-meltdown area, and draws parallels with mothers and children in Belarus, who learned to survive, scarred but self-educated, after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 28 years ago. As Kamanaka puts it: “People would rather not acknowledge their own exposure to radiation or the contamination of their environment. They also wish to avoid discrimination. Taking advantage of this psychology, TEPCO and the Japanese government continue to shirk responsibility. I would rather entrust the future of the children caught up in our society’s warped priorities to the mothers who wholeheartedly wish to guard and protect them.” (from tokyofilmgoer.com)
This screening is a collaborative event between UPAF and Loch House, a loose supporting network for the people who recently moved to the area including many Fukushima families who relocated after 3/11/2011. Okayama is one of the popular destinations of young families’ southwestwards migration in Japan since the Great Earthquake. UPAF invited Loch House to co-curate this program. How are the people who have remained in Fukushima? What have gone through in the minds of people who have relocated here for this past 4 years? What are the problems and joys in their new lives? How are their children coping with the changes? What can town residents do to help them? There will be an hour-long panel discussion after the 3pm show on Sunday, August 9 (We will have volunteer interpreters available)