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By Paula Planelles Manzanaro
The film director Dan Reed presents his last production Children of the Tsunami, a movie which pays tribute to those people affected by the catastrophe that occured in Japan. On March 11, the most powerful earthquake in recent memory,triggered a tsunami in Japan with waves of up to 40 metres. Another fatal consequence was the Fukushima nuclear accident, the largest since the Chernobyl disaster in 1996. In the anniversary of the tragedy, Children of the Tsunami tells the story through the words of its youngest survivors.
In an interview for The London Daily News, the movie director Dan Reed explained the difficulties and anecdotes during the shooting of Children of the Tsunami.
It is not the first time that Dan Reed surprises the audience with documentaries about important tragedies and their fatal consequences. Terror in Mumbai (2009) and Battle for Haiti (2011), both winning the BAFTA awards, are some examples of his outstanding work. Now, the director wants to pay to tribute to Japan. One year ago, on the 11th of March, this country witnessed one of the most tragic accidents across the world.
The 8.9 magnitude tremor triggered the tsunami, which caused the death of more than 15,800 people, according to the Japanese National Police Agency. In addition, 3,287 citizens were missed and thousands of buildings were damaged or destroy Okama Primary School was one of the many places devastated by the tsunami, which killed 74 students. “The tsunami was a tragedy for the children’s relatives as most of them were dead. Only around four children between seven and ten years old survived”, Dan Reed told The London Daily News. For that reason, one of the most important challenges for the film director was finding children who were willing to tell their stories in front of the camera. Convincing parents to talk about it was also difficult. “Japanese society is very sensitive with the tragedy. Most of the parents did not want to speak to the journalists. So it was really difficult to find statements, my biggest challenge”, he added.
Naomi Hiratsuka is one of the affected mothers who lose their children after the tsunami devastated the school. Her daughter Koharu is still missing and, despite she asked the Government for help, she did not obtain respond. Naomi learned how to operate a mechanical digger. Every effort is not enough for her. “We, whose children are still missing, have taken the search into our own hands. But we’ve found nothing so far”, she explained.
The film also tells the story of those families affected by the Fukushima nuclear accident. Odaka Primary school, located close to the nuclear plant, was also a witness of the disaster. Ayaka Kamada, 10, is one of the many students who had to be evacuated to a semi-deserted town on the edge of the 20-km exclusion zone, where she may be remain for other 30 or 40 years until the entire area is decontaminated. The nuclear accident shattered her normal life. “My home life is such that I've become locked up in my own house. As I can't play outside anymore”, she said.
Severe precautions are taken in order to the radiation’s possible long-term effects, a constant worry for
Japanese parents. What they eat, how they dress or where they go would not mind in normal circumstances but, after the accident, every detail matters.
Cinema: a way to influence people
Dan Reed told the London Daily News how surprised he was when Japanese children told him their stories. “They have good values and a wonderful sense of serenity and community. In general, Japanese help each other, even more after the accident. I wanted to show in my movie that they are far from being emotionless”, he said.
Children of the Tsunami aims to explain the consequences of the tragedy “using a different angle”, Dan Reed commented. 7 months of intensive work were necessary to film the movie from an emotional perspective. “You are more vulnerable to a child. It is harder to put a barrier between you and the children. I can’t imagine how I would feel if that had happened to my children”, Dan Reed said.
For that reason, the director wanted to focus on the disaster, to make aware the audience of the problem. “TV or cinema cannot change the world but they influence people. If you want to change the world you have to find out exactly what happened, to talk to people directly affected and to know all the details”.
Dan Reed is working in his next project, a feature film about people in London who try to change the world in a very particular way. More stories need to be told and Dan Reed will continue doing it.
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