Over the years a slew of documentaries focused on Japan’s natural disasters, notable 3.11, has flooded film festivals and streaming services. Most cast a light on different aspects of these disasters: cleanup efforts, the lives of evacuees unable to return home, and more.
Filmmaker Imamura Ayako has taken a different approach to natural disaster coverage in Japan. For over a decade now, she’s been shining a spotlight on a group of people often overlooked by the media: those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Her new documentary「きこえなかったあの日」(“That Day I Couldn’t Hear”) covers a decade in the lives of deaf people during a series of natural calamities, including 3.11, the 2016 Kumamoto quake, and the 2018 floods in southwestern Japan. She also devotes attention to their struggles amid the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Imamura herself is deaf and has been working with deaf natural disaster victims since 3.11. Curious to see how people with similar hearing issues were faring — and seeing almost no TV coverage on the issue — Imamura traveled to Miyagi Prefecture eleven days after the disaster. An aftershock occurred while she was there. While her crew could hear the alarms and act accordingly, Imamura couldn’t. When she visited evacuation shelters, she saw how deaf evacuees had to rely heavily on the behavior and cues of hearing evacuees for news and access to resources.
Imamura became determined to tell their stories and spent a little over two years in Miyagi Prefecture covering their lives after 3.11. She released a documentary in 2013 「架け橋 きこえなかった3.11」(“The Connecting Bridge”) which was shown at several film festivals in Japan and abroad.
Not Just “Deaf” or “Natural Disaster Victims”
When she visited evacuation shelters, she saw how deaf evacuees had to rely heavily on the behavior and cues of hearing evacuees for news and access to resources. Click To TweetIn a statement on her latest documentary’s website, Imamura admits she saw the people who participated in 「きこえなかったあの日」as natural disaster victims. She wrote, “I had lost sight of the most important aspect of interviewing, which is to try and understand the other person.” This spurred her to focus more on illuminating their everyday lives as individuals beyond being “deaf” and a “natural disaster victim”.
Many of the people who appeared in Imamura’s 2013 documentary make an appearance in this new one. One couple who appears in both films is the Kikuchi’s. They survived 3.11 thanks to their hearing neighbor, who told them about the tsunami warning.
A Timely Release
The documentary’s release also seems more timely considering the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of northeastern Japan on February 13th. Certainly, more accommodations have been made to ensure deaf people have access to resources during emergencies. But is it enough?
When she was interviewed by HuffPost Japan, Imamura outlined her idea of disaster prevention as one where people are deeply connected as a community, and not divided by “those who can’t hear” and “those who can hear”:
“I hope that people who have seen my movie will take that first step forward and say, ‘I saw that movie’ when they meet someone who is deaf. If they actually attempt to connect and get to know each other on a first-name basis, their perspectives will also change. Even if it takes time, I’d be happy if people become conscious of things like that.”
The documentary will premiere on February 27th at Shinjuku K’s cinema and will be available for online rental through Vimeo.
Related: Who’s “Disabled”? Doctor’s Letter Moves Many in Japan
