Free Screening: Letters from Fukushima with Director Minami Iizuka Q&A

Presented in partnership with Film Frontier.

Famed Hungarian director Béla Tarr hosted a filmmaking masterclass in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture in February 2024, resulting in a series of short films created by rising, diverse independent filmmakers all on subjects intersecting Fukushima and the Great East Japan Earthquake. Letters from Fukushima is an omnibus film showcasing these shorts, presented at Japan Society followed by a Q&A with Minami Iizuka, director of Long Long Hair, one of the works included in the film.

Letters from Fukushima includes:

Nappo – After 13 years of silence, Fukushima children gather at Odaka Church. Singing and dancing, they breathe new life into the land. Dir. Po-Yu Lin, 2024, DCP, 9 min., color, in Japanese with English subtitles.

Wall – A man from the town of Namie had to relocate his landscaping business after the Fukushima disaster. One day, he begins working on a garden in his office. Dir. Miran Ooura, 2024, DCP, 28 min., color, in Japanese with English subtitles.

Long Long Hair – In a Fukushima hair salon, daily interactions reveal personal stories, resilience, and the beauty of life after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Dir. Minami Iizuka, 2024, DCP, 23 min., color, in Japanese with English subtitles.

From F – Fukushima, Family, Female, and Future. A story about various Fs, starring a 17-year-old-girl who wants to be a dancer while attending an evening school in Fukushima. Dir. Shumpei Shimizu, 2024, DCP, 10 min., color, in Japanese with English subtitles.

Letters from Fukushima – “Woman, Life, Freedom” is a social movement seeking gender equality. Through three scenes of Fukushima, the film honors the women who gave their lives for this cause. Dir. Roya Eshraghi, 2024, DCP, 27 min., color, in Japanese and Persian with English subtitles.

The Guests – After the radiation leak at the Fukushima Power Plant, a group of Southeast Asian auto mechanics was dispatched to work this impacted land. Dir. Zhien Xu, 2024, DCP, 28 min., color, in Japanese and Filipino with English subtitles.


Tale of Cows – Two women who survived the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake perform a Kamishibai picturebook about the cows abandoned during the tragedy. Dir. Takeshi Fukunaga, 2024, DCP, 29 min., color, in Japanese with English subtitles.

About Minami Iizuka
An anthropologist and filmmaker, Iizuka explores themes of migration and diaspora through her work. Her debut film Lock Up and Down (2022), shot during quarantine in Vietnam, was screened at Japan’s PIA and Nara Film Festivals. She directed The Taste of Orange (2023) in Prague, which was selected for the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival and further European festivals. In 2024, she participated in filmmaker Béla Tarr’s workshop in Fukushima, where she created Long Long Hair (2024). Currently based in Chile, she is developing a feature film while pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo.


About Film Frontier
The Film Frontier Global Networking Program is an initiative organized by the Japanese Government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs. Film Frontier helps provide Japanese filmmakers international exposure, networking, and screening opportunities.

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Film programs are generously supported by Anime NYC, ORIX Corporation USA, and Yen Press. Endowment support is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund and The John and Miyoko Davey Endowment Fund. Additional season support is provided by Jono Abrams and Elizabeth Linn, Ayumi Arafune, Darin Arita and Kanako Arita, Mike Audet, Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Catanzaro, The Globus Family, George P. Hirose, Akiko Koide and Shohei Koide, David Toberisky, Joseph Rajaratnam and Dharshini Iolanthe Sivakumaran, Japan Society Film Council, and other Film supporters.

Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the official Japanese airline sponsor of Japan Society Film Program. Housing assistance is provided by the Prince Kitano New York, the official hotel sponsor of Japan Society Film Program.

Japan Society arts and culture programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Japan Society’s 120th anniversary initiatives and related programs are generously supported by Champion Sponsor, MUFG Bank, Ltd.; Advocate Sponsor, Mizuho Americas; and Friend Sponsor, Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas).