I was asked to photograph a movie premier event in Seattle last week. The movie was called "The Joy of Man's Desiring" and it was a story about two young siblings' emotional struggle after their parents' died from the big tsunami they had in northern Japan five years ago. The director, Sugita, and his filming staff came from Japan and we held a Q & A session and VIP reception after the movie. It was a great honor to be able to be a part of the team to promote the movie because it was such a profound and well thought out piece. No wonder it had won a Berlin International Film Festival's Generation Kplus Best Film Award in 2014. I have never met a director of an award winning film before and it was great to meet the person who orchestrated this masterpiece with his incredible vision.
He and his crew thought of everything. It was packed with a message, even the scene being the protagonist walking silently in the school hallway, that recovering from such a big tragic event takes time and all we can do is to let the survivors grieve without being rushed. Without stating the message verbally, the director and actors were able to show us the emotional gap between the survivors and the rest of the people who did not experience the tragedy. The rest of the society moved on and the affected cities are cleaned up, but the emotional scar of the survivors are still buried in the mud.
The Director Sugita was a survivor of Great Hanshin Earthquake which took lives of over 6000 people in western Japan in 1995. He lost a classmate in the disaster and it has become his mission to help people who were affected by Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 from his personal experience. It was an eye opening experience and felt refreshed and cleansed watching a visual poetry and speaking with amazing people. Being a photographer does rock!
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