Mitsuru Kudo

Sumiko Haneda returns to film what will be the final bits of Akiko Kanda's life, documenting Kanda's will to dance as she struggles with terminal cancer.

Haneda Sumiko, documentary filmmaker who was born in Dalian, Manchuria in 1926 and was there to experience the conclusion of the Pacific War. Following her previous work , she revisits Dalian and Lushun, places where she spent her formative years. Lushun has served as an important naval port in modern times, and in 2009 was finally fully opened to foreigners. Haneda joined a tour organized as part of that opening, and delves into memoires as she visits the house where she grew up and the school she attended.

Set in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, the tragic theme of the film is the destruction of millions of lives in the 13 years before Manchukuo collapsed with Japan’s World War II surrender in August 1945, and the years of suffering it brought in its wake.

Documentary on end-of-life care in Japan

Mayor Iwakawa was voted into office in 1991, promising better welfare for senior citizens. As a result of his efforts to create a town with resident participation, while battling against anti-reform forces of the town council, Takanosu-machi becomes the best welfare town in Japan. In the nationwide local elections in 2003, however, Iwakawa, loses by a huge margin against the opposing candidate who promises the consolidation of local municipalities.

This extraordinary film presents Japanese classical scroll painting as never before. The Yamanaka Tokiwa comprises twelve scrolls painted by Matabei Iwasa some 400 years ago. Haneda redefines the art documentary and demonstrated that a film about a masterpiece can be equally masterful.

Documentary on an elderly Tibetan refugee who has lived in Nepal for 40 years

Documentary film from Japan.

The care facilities for the elderly in a small town in Gifu prefecture, and the comparison with the welfare in Denmark, Sweden and Australia.

“I have three tasks in my life: to dance, to teach dance, and to create dance,” says the pioneering Japanese performer Akiko Kanda in this intimate portrait of creativity and individuality, After seeing a Martha Graham performance in college, Kanda left her family behind in Japan and arrived in New York City, where she studied under the legendary Graham and became a principal dancer with the troupe. Following the wiry artist as she moves from practice floor to performance hall, and from the cramped single-room apartment she lives in to a trip home to see her aging mother, director Sumiko Haneda reveals a woman who has rebelled against traditional ideals of marriage and motherhood, and who nearly single-handedly brought modern dance to Japan-and kept it alive. “When I die,” Kanda tells the director, “I will be content if I can just say, ‘I danced.'”

Iwate Prefecture, Ohasamacho. In the foothills of Mt. Hayachine, the kagura (devotional dance) offered to the mountain goddess by the mountain priests is still performed today nearly unchanged from mediaeval times. This dance, which has been handed down along several lines of succession in the villages of Take and Otsugunai, has its origins in prayer. Take's kagura and Otsugunai's kagura are said to be closely related. The film shows the people who lovingly continue to perform these two types of dance and the transition from ancient tradition to modern life. Even from the first moment that director Haneda was charmed by Hayachine's kagura, the mountain villages that were home to the gods had already begun to disappear.

The poignant focal point for this film is a cherry tree that is over 1400 years old. Beginning with the tree, the director then explores the families and environment around the tree. The editing and music contribute to the sense of a haunting past contained within the solid structure of an ancient natural wonder.

An electrifying journey into the nether regions of the late-‘60s Tokyo underground. A loose adaptation of Oedipus Rex in which a gay son kills his mother and sleeps with his father.

Documentary about the relationships between mothers and their children.

Documentary on Chua Swee­-Lin, a Malaysian exchange student who was threatened with deportation over his protest against the separation and inde­pendence of Singapore.