KOFU--A student is making a documentary that contrasts and connects her devastated hometown, Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, with university life here.
KOFU--A student is making a documentary that contrasts and connects her devastated hometown, Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, with university life here.
Yuka Kanno, a junior in the international policy studies department, Yamanashi Prefectural University in Kofu, decided to make the movie after she was encouraged by noted director Yoichi Sai.
Her film will be shown at the Yamanashi Film Festival in November.
In mid-July, Kanno, 20, visited her hometown, where she lived for 18 years until she entered university.
With her heart bursting with sadness, she filmed the spot where her house used to stand. All that was left after the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake was a street filled with mountains of rubble. On the shore stood a lone pine tree. She was so disoriented by the scene she feared she would become lost.
She met with her mother, who now lives in temporary housing, and volunteers at evacuation centers.
Her family--her parents and two brothers--survived, but many of her acquaintances did not.
"People's thoughts will change as time passes," Kanno said. "I wanted to record what I see now."
The title of the film in English is "To protect today."
Kanno said before the disaster she hadn't kept in close contact with her family due to a false sense of security that everybody at home was safe.
But after March 11, she knew that it was important to pay attention to the present, to do what she could today and every day. That thought, Kanno said, inspired the title of the film.
As a university student, she takes classes and participates in various activities, some fun, some mundane. It is a life totally divorced from the harsh reality thrust upon the survivors in the disaster areas.
By capturing the lives of her friends who work as volunteers and her teachers at the university, she hopes to highlight the two kinds of lives that exist "today," both of which are important to Kanno.
She became involved in film production after working as a staff member at the Yamanashi Film Festival, organized by her university.
The festival, originally scheduled for March, was canceled due to the earthquake and rescheduled for November.
When Kanno suggested at an organizing meeting for the festival, "Why don't we record the present state of the disaster-stricken areas," director Sai, an adviser to the festival planning team, replied, "You should do it yourself."
This is the first time Kanno has made a full-fledged documentary. Her previous effort was a less-than 10-minute film for a university class.
She plans to return to her hometown in August to continue filming.