Brazilian filmmaker Ana Vaz spent ten years making Hanabi, her experimental documentary about the impact of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Central to Hanabi (“fire flower,” the literal meaning of the Japanese word for fireworks) is Yoko Hayasuke’s Journal of a Radioactive Brain. In voice-over, Vaz quotes from the Japanese writer, who wrote in the second person about her experiences in the aftermath of the disaster. The quotations are accompanied by hypnotic, sometimes abstract images and interwoven with text messages and testimonies from survivors who still live and work in the area. A vivid presence at the heart of the film: the setting sun.
The disorienting sound design, including the ticking of a Geiger counter, combines with the monotone voice-over and mesmerizing imagery to create an eerie sense of unease, echoing the invisible threat of nuclear radiation. How do you deal with something you cannot see and whose dangers are hard to gauge? What does an event like this mean for Japan, for the Earth, for humanity? How do you maintain your mental health when faced with such an intangible danger?
Stills
