OSAKA--Although news broadcasters first, reporters at Mainichi Broadcasting System Inc. knew that the footage they shot of people impacted by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami was too powerful to be confined to the small screen.
OSAKA--Although news broadcasters first, reporters at Mainichi Broadcasting System Inc. knew that the footage they shot of people impacted by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami was too powerful to be confined to the small screen.
So they produced a 99-minute movie from 800 hours of video footage they had taken for their TV news coverage of the disasters. For MBS, it will be the first time it has distributed a film to movie theaters and other screening facilities in its 61-year history.
“We thought that if we produce a movie, we can convey the realities of the affected areas to people who do not watch television,” said Norihito Morioka, 36, who served as the film's director.
The title is “Ikinuku Minami-Sanrikucho Hitobito no Ichinen” (A year in the lives of people in Minami-Sanriku town who survived and are struggling). Minami-Sanriku is located in the northern part of Miyagi Prefecture and was mostly destroyed by the tsunami.
The film, without any narration, shows the harsh and poignant realities for survivors following the March 11, 2011, disaster.
For example, a man who collapsed into tears at the location where his wife’s body was found is making “bento” lunch boxes for his children, though he is not accustomed to doing so.
A woman who continues to look for her missing husband, a town government official, drinks a toast alone in her family’s car on his birthday. The car had been swallowed by the tsunami.
An elderly woman who lost her elder brother prays for the repose of his soul in front of a small Buddhist altar set up in a corner of a temporary housing facility. She had been living with her brother before the disaster.
Immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake, MBS dispatched three groups of reporters to Minami-Sanriku, as the company was required to take charge of coverage of the town among broadcasting stations affiliated with Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc. (TBS).
In Minami-Sanriku, MBS reporters not only covered daily news but also produced documentary TV programs. The video footage taken in their coverage was re-edited for the movie.
In footage from the day when some evacuees began to live in temporary housing facilities, others who were unable to secure housing shouted angrily at town officials.
“This is reality. We thought that it is opposite of the role of news reporting to ignore scenes that are difficult to be aired on TV,” Morioka said.
Amid the growing popularity of Twitter and other new social media in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, the public is casting doubts on the reporting methods of newspapers, broadcasting stations and other traditional media.
Thus, MBS reporters found in movie production “a new possibility” that differs from producing a documentary TV program or daily news coverage.
“We cover daily events by going to places where they are taking place. We have an accumulation (of such know-how),” said Satoshi Imoto, 44, who served as the movie's producer.
“Ikinuku Minami-Sanrikucho Hitobito no Ichinen” is scheduled to be screened in the Seventh Art Theater in Osaka from Oct. 6; in the Theater Pole-Pole Higashi-Nakano in Tokyo from Oct. 13; and in the Kobe Art Village Center from Oct. 20. The film will be also shown in the Kyoto Cinema at a later date.
Advance tickets are priced at 1,400 yen (about $17.50). Tickets at the door are 1,700 yen.