Ordinary Life is a documentary about the people - and dogs - of Fukushima. It was made by Sapporo director Taizo Yoshida.
I went to the premiere in Sapporo, back in March, and suggested to Yoshida-san that if he hadn't got English subtitle translators in mind, I could help with my contacts of students/friends/colleagues.
So 14 wonderful translators have given their services for free, and now an American friend and I have been editing it...and we are uniting translation and film. We hope that the stories of Fukushima people as shown in Ordinary Life will reach non-Japanese audiences through these subtitles.
Tonight the local newspaper, the Hokkaido Shimbun, featured us :-)
If ANYONE out there has connection to film festivals/film distribution circles outside Japan - let me know. We of course want to get this film and its message a wider audience.
Am looking forward to seeing it! Good luck with the final stages.
ReplyDeleteDear Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI am Yi Yi Lee from Malaysia.
I've been your silent reader recently, I enjoy reading your blog very much.
I saw your post about the filming of "Ordinary Life".
I am a graduate student in the School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (a local university in my country).
We have been organizing a public course called "Windows of the World" in our school for about 2 years now. We show some movies of different genres, then an invited commentator will make a review/comment on the film and after that we will have a discussion after the show. We run the course on volunteer basis, the audiences do not have to pay. We have shown movies and documentaries such as "The Namesake", "Kite Runner", "Water", "Yol", "The Name of the Rose", "Sang Pencerah - Indonesian", "Provoked", "An Inconvenient Truth", "The Chocolate Wars", "Supersize Me", "Sicko", "Papa, Can you hear me sing - Chinese", "Splice", "Sicko", Peepli-Live", etc. We are interested on movies/documentaries on culture, religion, current issues, gender issues, environment, nutrition and human life in general.
The course is attended by lecturers, staff and students of Universiti Sains Malaysia.
I had a discussion with the course coordinator, and we are really interested to preview the documentary "Ordinary Life" in one of our sessions and have a lively discussion thereafter.
We have been to Tokyo for several times, and I felt Japan is very close to my heart. I have been following the news about Fukushima and the Tohoku Earthquake closely.
We are interested to show fellow Malaysians the life of Fukushima people after the disaster and correct the negative perception of some people against Japan.
Thank you very much.
Best regards,
Yi Yi
Malaysia
Yi Yi - thankyou for your interest in Ordinary Life.
ReplyDeleteCan you post a comment here again - and this time include your email? I won't publish your e mail on this blog ( of course!), but then I can contact you outside of this blog.
Amanda