Listening to the Air

This documentary film follows a female radio personality on Rikuzentakata Saigai FM, one of the FM stations for disaster-stricken communities established in various places after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Touching on the memories and thoughts of many local residents, the camera paints an intimate portrait of the DJ as she broadcasts these people's voices over the radio day by day. While showing the steady ongoing revival of this town swept away by the tsunami, the film simultaneously follows the building of a new community on higher ground. From her own personal vantage point, Komori closely documents what people talk about and what they gradually forget, and we see glimpses of her sincere stance as a video artist seeking to console the spirits of the many lost to the tragedy. This work, shot in parallel with her previous Trace of Breath, was the 27th original film for the Aichi Arts Center and Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art.

Japan/Japanese/73m/English Subs

KOMORI Haruka

Born 1989 in Shizuoka, Japan
Based in Miyagi, Japan

Photo: Teruki Uehara

Komori Haruka focuses on people, and the stories they tell, rather than pursuing and documenting the direct effects of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Her Trace of Breath (2016), which traces two and a half years in the life of a man running a seed and nursery business in Rikuzentakata, Iwate, was highly acclaimed. She has collaborated with the painter and writer Seo Natsumi, under the name "Komori Haruka + Seo Natsumi," since the two of them volunteered in the Tohoku coastal region in March 2011. They have presented several video works for which Seo wrote the text and Komori shot and edited the footage. The duo plans and organizes forums for dialogue, in addition to their work documenting the landscape and people's narratives.

Selected Works & Awards

2018Listening to the Air

2016Trace of Breath

2014Under the Wave, On the Ground (Komori Haruka + Seo Natsumi)

2012The Place Named

ARTicle Films