Project area:Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture
I want to "live" in Iwaki
This is an adventure in itself
Possible or not?
The start of an adventure
Iwaki Adventure Film Festival is organized by workers and students resident in Iwaki city, and is the cities first large scale film festival. Masuda struggling with the thought "why can't we make a film festival in Iwaki?" took it upon himself to found the "Iwaki Adventure Film Festival". Gathering many different people of all ages, careers and ways of thinking, a team of local people finally realized the first festival in February 2011. But then just one month later the disaster of 3.11 occurred.
"To be honest when the disaster came I thought from now on a film festival is impossible. However those who had joined for the first event offered encouragement suggesting "we can not see the future from here, so let's make the future together." And gaining strength from the words 'we don't know if it is possible or not so surely that is an adventure' we decided to plan for the second festival."
At the time of deciding to make the festival an ongoing event television sets in the evacuation centres showed only continuous images of the tsunami and nuclear power station. At this time Masuda was consulted by the festival staff.
"They suggested 'Why don't we make film screenings at the evacuation centres?'. They proposed to take a film screening around various different centres but my reaction was 'this isn't the time for such things'. However after one month when things had settled down a little, and distribution of essentials was not so urgent I began to consider what kind of support is needed from now? and so we finally decided to hold a travelling cinema around various evacuation centres around the city."
From a travelling cinema touring evacuation centres
To the Film Festival of 2013
The touring film screenings began two months after the earthquake in May and continued until 6th November. Masuda was particularly impressed by the very first screening.
"A large group of people grouped together at the evacuation centre and parents and children, all kinds of people enjoying the film together. Seeing this I felt relieved and was very happy."
The travelling film screening has now finished and the team are now preparing for the new "adventure" of the second film festival.
"What exactly this film festival can do for the town I can not say, but we have the strong feeling that as residents of Iwaki we want to continue to "live" in Iwaki, and when we can not be certain of its condition then this becomes an "adventure" in itself. It perhaps unimaginative but by the time of the second film festival in 2013 I don't think Iwaki will have changed that much. We do not know what will meet us at each step, but taking this an adventure we move forward."
Interviewed: 8th July Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture
photo :jouji SUZUKI
