Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting makes documentary film The Target Village

Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting makes documentary film <em>The Target Village</em>

Director Chie Mikami explained her thoughts and the background of the film The Target Village at Ryukyu Shimpo Office in Ameku, Naha in the afternoon of September 4.


September 5, 2013 Ryukyu Shimpo

A documentary film titled The Target Village will be in theaters in Okinawa from September 7. The film covers residents of Takae Village, Higashi-son, who are opposed to the construction of U.S. military helipads and deployment of MV-22 Osprey there. Director Chie Mikami, a news anchor of Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting (QAB), visited Ryukyu Shimpo Office in Ameku, Naha on September 4 to explain her thoughts on the work.

The television station made the film by extending an award-winning documentary made in Okinawa last year. It will be in theaters in 14 prefectures nationwide, screening in Naha from September 7 to October 11 at the Sakurazaka Theater. It will run from September 7 to 27 at Cinema Panic Miyakojima in Miyakojima City and on October 19 and 20 at Okinawa Civic Theater Ashibina in Okinawa City.

The film has already been screened from August in Tokyo and Osaka, playing to full audiences every day and receiving favorable comments. People in the audience who came to know the issue of Takae, which has received little attention from the Japanese major news media, gave their thoughts. One said, “I didn’t know that the role of media had stopped to the extent that it has.” Mikami said, “If people see the children of Takae in tears in the film, they will no longer say that they want to uphold Japan-U.S. Security Arrangements if that is the result.” She continued, “People will change their minds for sure when they come to know what is going on at Takae.”

The film describes the issue from the viewpoint of the residents. It also portrayed the difficult position of the people such as the Okinawa Defense Bureau personnel, the helipad construction workers and police who remove members of the protest movements. It showed there is no truly bad person there. Mikami said, “Through this film, I would like people to think about who it is who makes the children of Takae cry.”

Mikami, Okinawan media people and intellectuals held a mini-symposium at the Sakurazaka Theater after the morning premiere of the film on September 7.
For further details, call Sakurazaka Theater at 098 (860) 9555.

(English translation by T&CT, Lima Tokumori and Mark Ealey)

Go to Japanese


　


Previous Article:
Next Article:

[Similar Articles]