FILMOGRAPHY

A NEW MOON OVER TOHOKU

'Tohoku no Shingetsu'

'Shingetsu' is a Japanese word meaning 'new moon', the moon that cannot be seen, yet still exists with all its power in the darkness of the night sky...like the people of Tohoku who find ways to express joy after much of their physical world disappears.

A film about the recovery of the Japanese spirit in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster.

OBAACHAN'S GARDEN

lost in transition

In 1923, Asayo Murakami left Hiroshima as a picture bride and settled in a fishing village in Steveston, British Columbia.
Poignant interviews from a lucid 100 year old Asayo, recalls a remarkable journey that takes her from Meiji era Japan to twenty-first century North America.

NEIGHBOURS, WILD HORSES & COWBOYS

the wild west: spirit to myth

An old cowboy who worked with horses all his life and a young cowboy who rides the open range as a job today, observe each other with curiosity.
At the same time, the last big herd of 1,200 wild horses on the Canadian prairies is captured and their lifestyle destroyed.

THE LAST HARVEST

the way we were

In 1992, the loss of 63,247 family farms in Canada over a span of 5 years, claims another farm to the statistics.

A family chooses to harvest their last crop together rather than letting it rot in the ground, or seeing it plowed under, ending the family's 50 year relationship with their land and each other.

A SENSE OF ONOMICHI

intangilble being of place

There is something about Onomichi that makes you breathe and feel differently.

Maybe it’s the air, or the light, the sea, the mountains, or the people, the century old temples, the food, or the sounds.

‘A Sense of Onomichi’ is a day in the life of this little town.

WATARI DORI:

A BIRD OF PASSAGE

a Japanese Canadian story

When Japan entered World War II, a young Vancouver teenager who loved to dance, Irene Tsuyuki, was incarcerated in the government's internment camp of Tashme in the B.C. interior and later repatriated to Japan.

culture and community japan youth exchange chibi taiko visit cait.jpg

FUSION OF THE HEARTS: ISHIZUE

Taiko drum connections

Ishizue documents a fusion of the hearts as traditional taiko players in Japan work alongside young Canadian taiko players learn about each other while playing drums leading up to their public performance of Ishizue.

THE TRAVELLING REVEREND

spirits from the past

Story of a Japanese priest who ministered Buddhists out on the vast Canadian wilderness during the ‘Dirty Thirties’ and WWII, traveling through adverse conditions and long distances by foot, horse and wagon and car to provide spiritual solace to those in need.

PERFECTION OF THE MORNING

In Development

Based on the Canadian bestseller by Sharon Butala.

THE INLAND SEA