After the Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011, dozens of documentary filmmakers headed north to the devastated Tohoku region, specifically the hard-hit coastal areas of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures. One filmmaker, however, had already been filming there for years: Miyagi native Kazuki Agatsuma.
Starting as a student at Tohoku Gakuin University in 2005, Agatsuma had traveled regularly to Hadenya, a tiny fishing port in Miyagi Prefecture, to study the O-sususama, a festival held annually on the second Sunday of March. For three years he also shot footage that became the basis for his 2014 documentary ¡°The People Living in Hadenya.¡±
The tsunami, however, destroyed all but one of the village¡¯s 80 homes and killed 16 residents. New York Times reporter Martin Fackler, visited Hadenya soon after and wrote admiringly about how the villagers ¡°drew uniquely on the tight bonds of their once-tidy village¡± and ¡°quickly reorganized themselves.¡±
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