Tsuchimoto Noriaki

About This Screening

Tsuchimoto Noriaki, regarded as one of the major figures in Japanese documentary history, began working in film at Iwanami Film Productions in 1956 making educational and public-relations documentaries. Coming from a background of political activism, Tsuchimoto used filmmaking to foster an awareness of the plight of the victims of "Minamata disease," an illness caused by toxic mercury pollution in the coastal waters around Minamata, and made sixteen films on the subject over forty years. "From the beginning, I tried to make films that raised problems and showed the immediate effects of them, but at the same time I emphasized their universality, and I did this more and more with each succeeding film. Perhaps this is why these documentary films on Minamata disease became known. I was able to make films that spoke to the worldŠ" Minamata‹The Victims and Their World, the first film in the Minamata series, follows the lives of 29 households who have suffered mercury poisoning as well as the growing movement to support their cause. Shiranui Sea returns to Minamata where, after winning court cases and receiving compensation, victims face the rest of their lives with the irreversible damage of their disease. The film also explores the growing number of unidentified victims, poisoned in the same way, from across the bay of the Shiranui Sea. Afghan Spring was made during the Soviet troops¹ withdrawal from an Afghanistan on the brink of transformation. "Under a political structure of the Cold War, the West refused to recognize the republic democratic government of Afghanistan, claiming that it was a puppet government of the Soviet Union. This film is a record of the Afghan people around this time."