OPEN YOUR EYES
The connection between Tokyo, the city that only consumes electricity, and the areas where residents were evacuated due to nuclear power plant meltdown has ceased to exist and reached its peak at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Open your eyes and look at the “True Torchbearers” runs connecting the two disconnected places.
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Tokyo 2020 was bid as a “reconstruction” olympic during The Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster. And in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was enforced.
This film begins from the scene of the Tokyo Olympic Stadium and nuclear disaster affected area connected live via VR broadcast on the day of the opening ceremony in July, 2021. Held behind closed doors due to the pandemic, there were many people surrounding the stadium, and many police officers were roped into the traffic restriction.
On the other hand, Futaba Town is empty, with residents evacuated due to a nuclear power plant meltdown. A row of abandoned houses that have been abandoned for a long time, is the reality. There is a disconnection between the Tokyo metropolitan area, which has been consuming electricity from nuclear power plants that have melted down, and areas that have suffered major damage from the nuclear disaster. Is it possible to engage in dialogue to unite forces between them?
Open your eyes and take a look.
The figure of the “True torchbearer” runs through the disaster area of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster.
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YUICHI WATANABEDirector
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YUICHII WATANABEProducer
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Yoshio SatomiKey Cast
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Naomi OgawaKey Cast
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Masaaki GoiKey Cast
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Yuichi WatanabeLead Artists
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Atsushi KadowakiKey CollaboratorsMusic
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Project Title (Original Language):目をあけて
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Project Type:Virtual Reality, 360 Video
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Runtime:14 minutes 54 seconds
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Completion Date:December 31, 2024
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Production Budget:15,000 USD
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Country of Origin:Japan
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Language:Japanese
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Student Project:No
He is a filmmaker, who found joy in creating projects that transcend genres such as media, social activism, reporting, and art.
Graduated from the Cultural Anthropology Course at Saitama University College of Liberal Arts in 1986. He deepened his thoughts on issues in cultural anthropology, such as the academic practice of separating cultural anthropological research and social activities, which were taken for granted, and the one-way relationship with the research subject(informant).
During his university days, he made an independent student film and decided to pursue film production as a career. After graduating, he began his career as an assistant director for television program production. In 2000, he joined DNA, an independent video journalist group, and covered Afghanistan before and after the collapse of the Taliban in 2001, and the Iraq War in 2003.In 2011, he was involved in the launch of the “What-the-citizen-should-do-now Project'' by a collective of citizens and NGOs regarding the Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear disaster.This project is still currently ongoing.
Other than production of an orthodox videos such as television, he also carries out a variety of media art projects. For example, a bidirectional video dialogue exchange using satellite phones by citizens in the era when there was no YouTube or Skype (Afghanistan-Japan High School Dialogue Project,2002), a project of the countdown of the days of housing complex leveled by yakuza(Japanese mafia) to the day until the eviction recorded and transmitted online in real time(Minori-High town Project, 2004). In these projects, he questions the one-way relationship with the subject themselves that traditional video has, and the nature of images that are only shown to the viewer one-sidedly, which pursues the potential of transformative "interactive video".
His current creative theme is to socially implement fair and peaceful "bidirectional human relationships".
He believes that VR media has the potential to achieve this.
【The genesis of the project】
The main background of this film is the Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear disaster that occurred in 2011.
Tokyo 2020 was bid as a "reconstruction" Olympics after that devastating disaster. However, the reality is that people have been evacuated from the land where the meltdown nuclear power plant is located and cannot live there. Concealing the tragic reality, Tokyo 2020 was held.
The disconnection between the two places and people, Tokyo and the areas with nuclear power plants that have melted down, are the origin of the project.
【Social impact of the project】
These disconnections between two places and people are not just a domestic problem of Japan. It is related to the existing unfair inequality between the center and the periphery all around the world, the parasocial relationship between production and consumption areas, and lack of understanding of others or rejection of others.
These relationships are creating disconnections all around the world that refuse dialogue and cut off others.
It is our mission to create a “bidirectional relationships” between humans that bridges this disconnection, and find a way to save both sides.
【Why did Watanabe make this film with this theme?】
The nuclear power plant which melted down was built in a far away location that has less impact on Tokyo. Director Watanabe, as a citizen of Tokyo where it only consumes electricity unilaterally, is in a heartache because of the fact that the damage of the nuclear disaster was forced onto a local place.
With this feeling in mind, since 2011, director Watanabe has been reporting on the Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear disaster.
His current creative theme is to socially implement fair and peaceful "bidirectional human relationships".
He believes that VR media has the potential to achieve this.
【Inspiration and influences】
This film was originally planned to be a video performance broadcast live in VR on the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. VR live broadcasts are used commercially for a virtual tourism. This project’s aim was so-called, dark tourism.
The media projects that Watanabe has carried out have been influenced by Sarajevo Survival Guide (1993), the project of FAMA based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This FAMA project is also assumed as dark tourism.
Both Watanabe and FAMA project cross genres such as media, social practice, reporting, and art.
【Visual and technical approaches】
Despite the fact that VR360 works often use methods that prevent the videographer from being seen, this work has the videographer visible. The performers are the videographers in some scenes.
The disconnection and reconnection between Tokyo and the areas with nuclear power plants that have melted down are depicted in this film.
Therefore, by crossing over the boundary between both people in two places, and yet again beyond the boundaries of videographer / videographed people, it is intended to create a bidirectional relationship by mixing the two, and those are reflected in the method of expression.
【Expectations for audience reaction】
The existing unfair inequality between the center and the periphery and the parasocial relationship between production and consumption areas are embedded in society. Vast people are unable to feel the disconnect between the two, or they spend their daily lives trying not to look at it.
By watching this film, we want you to “open your eyes”, and reconsider this disconnect and think about it.