Yonaoshi 3.11 is an interactive documentary on Japan after 3.11

ジャパンウェブドックプロジェクト《よなおし3.11》は 2011年 3月11日に日本に起った３重災害／地震、津波、福島原発事故の爪痕を追うウエッブドキュメンタリー。数ヶ月にわたる被災地と東京での取材調査をベースに、目に見えない危険が身近に存在する中でどうやって生きてゆけばよいのか、いままでの生活日常をかえて行くべきかを自問する日本人。はたして、巨大地震が《世直し》と言われる世界観を一新するきっかけとなることができるのか？

I am presently in Japan for 4 months to film and research on Japan after 3.11. After the triple disaster, I felt an inexplicable call to head to Japan without delay. In May 2011, I travelled to the worst impacted areas, and began filming what I saw. This year, I am trying to understand what is happening here to share this with others. We are a small team, travelling back and forth to meet and to interview people. Nothing is resolved here, and the trauma of the tsunami is ubiquitous. More than 100,000 people are still living in temporary shelters. The shadow of the nuclear plant looms large, notably the threat posed by the spent fuels of Reactor 4. Seismologists estimate that there is a 70% risk of a giant earthquake striking Tokyo in the next thirty years. How can people continue to live serenely in the face of all this?

The webdoc's interactive format will feature a mosaic of video sequences comprising interviews, but also "landscapes", together with a photo gallery. It will encourage viewers to participate actively, by inviting them to leave their footprint via a wish tree on the home page, and via a blog. A real time earthquake map of Japan will also be available to visitors.

I interview many local people but also Japanese artists and personalities who are connected with what is happening. The video portraits will feature the personal perspectives of around twenty Japanese personalities and residents of the north east of Japan affected by the tsunami and the nuclear accident:

The architects ITO Toyo and BAN Shigeru, the director HIRATA Oriza, the singer YAE, the musician SAKAMOTO Ryuichi, the nuclear journalist HIROSE Takashi, the writer and anti-nuclear activist KAMATA Satoshi, the photographer HATAKEYAMA Naoya, the Zen monk and writer GENYU Sokyu, the oyster farmer HATAKEYAMA Shigeatsu, the anti-nuclear writer and activist OCHIAI Keiko, the manga author TANIGUCHI Jiro, the filmmaker KAMANAKA Hitomi, the organic farmer SATO Masanori, the first Japanese astronaut and Fukushima refugee AKIYAMA Toyohiro, the filmmaker MOTOHASHI Seiichi, together with a doctor, adolescents and mothers living in Minami-soma, a town located just 20km from the Fukushima nuclear plant....

A Facebook page has been created to trace the progress of the project, and to share news about the situation in Japan.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Japan-Webdoc-project/157612504303596

Someone has described Fukushima as being "like a parallel universe". It is another world. On the surface, everything seems normal. Beyond the 20km exclusion zone, life continues as before. But things are not as before, appearances are deceptive. The danger is invisible. This is my challenge: to make visible something that is invisible.

Through this web documentary I want to give a voice to the Japan that I love. I want us to learn from the experiences of its people, to listen to their voices in the wake of the unprecedented event that they have endured; a natural disaster of a scale which occurs once every thousand years, followed by a nuclear catastrophe which has forced 100,000 people to abandon their homes, and the consequences of which are not yet known.

I want to hear the voices of those who are living through this. I want to try to understand the profound transformation that Japan has been undergoing since the disaster of March 11, and to observe the seeds of change that are beginning to sprout. I want to try to understand how people can emerge from the chaos and find fresh hope, how people react in the face of such a trilogy: earthquake - tsunami - nuclear disaster. Can we change the order of things? Some pretend not to see, others prefer to forget. It is vital that we don’t simply go to sleep, that we trace diligently, compassionately and vigilantly the fallout from the shock experienced by Japan on March 11.

We all have to learn from what is happening. Japan is a laboratory : how to deal with a massive disaster? Can it be an opportunity to reconsider our relationship to our environment, to energy, politics, and economy? Can new systems be invented? Or are we condemned to repeat again and again the same mistakes?

Who am I?

I am a French media artist who has spent a very large part of my life in Japan, first as a child with my parents, then later as a student. With such a name, how could it have been otherwise? I did a Ph.D at the University of Tokyo, specializing in Japanese avant garde theatre. At the same time, I staged performances in atypical locations such as temples, cemeteries, and even at a Noh theatre. Later, I taught "media performance" at the Kyoto University of Art and Design. I had previously studied cinema at Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle University and was always keen on integrating technology and visual projects in my performances. Since my return to France, I have been working on media installations in my home village of Biot in southeast France. My heart is shared equally between these different cities where I have lived.

Last year I was utterly overwhelmed by what had happened in Japan The Webdoc project seemed the most natural way to react. I Iaunched the project as best I could, and today I need your support to shed light on what is happening here. I want to understand. The whole word is undergoing unprecedented change. We have so much to learn from the experience of the Japanese.

Japan Webdoc Project_Yonaoshi 3.11