Japan looks to film business for help processing 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster
Source: Associated Press
The unnerving clicks of dosimeters are constant as people wearing white protective gear quickly visit the radiated no-go zones of decayed farms and empty storefronts. Evacuees huddle on blankets on gymnasium floors, waiting futilely for word of compensation and relocation.
Such scenes fill the flurry of independent films inspired by Japan's March 2011 nuclear catastrophe that tell stories of regular people who became overnight victims stories the creators feel are being ignored by mainstream media and often silenced by the authorities.
Nearly two years after the quake and tsunami disaster, the films are an attempt by the creative minds of Japan's movie industry not only to confront the horrors of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, but also to empower and serve as a legacy for the victims by telling their stories for international audiences.
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What's striking is that many of the works convey a prevailing message: The political, scientific and regulatory establishment isn't telling the whole truth about the nuclear disaster. And much of the public had been in the past ignorant and uncaring about Fukushima.
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Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/movies/ci_22691558/japan-looks-film-biz-help-processing-2011-tsunami
Dustlawyer
(10,494 posts)bad things or bad acts that hurt a lot of people, is that the film makers get bought off. I know of 4 BP Gulf oil spill documentaries that made it to the film trailer stage, and then disappear. One called Dirty Lying Bastards or some similar name even had a clip of my boss talking about BP's greed and lack of safety from our battles with them over the 3/23/2005 explosion at their Texas City, Tx. Plant that killed 15 and injured thousands. We shall see how many documentaries on this actually come out. This is now a cottege industry, film companies document the details of the calamities and the responsible parties pay them to shut up so they can limit negative publicity! The Japanese government should be arrested and charged with genocide for not immediately evacuating all of these people and telling the truth about the danger.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Thanks for keeping up with Fukushima, bananas.
Here's an article from awhile back having to do with fallout in the US:
Is the Increase in Baby Deaths in the US a Result of Fukushima Fallout?
by JANETTE D. SHERMAN, MD And JOSEPH MANGANO
U.S. babies are dying at an increased rate. While the United States spends billions on medical care, as of 2006, the US ranked 28th in the world in infant mortality, more than twice that of the lowest ranked countries. (DHHS, CDC, National Center for Health Statistics. Health United States 2010, Table 20, p. 131, February 2011.)
The recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates that eight cities in the northwest U.S. (Boise ID, Seattle WA, Portland OR, plus the northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Berkeley) reported the following data on deaths among those younger than one year of age:
4 weeks ending March 19, 2011 - 37 deaths (avg. 9.25 per week)
10 weeks ending May 28, 2011 - 125 deaths (avg.12.50 per week)
This amounts to an increase of 35% (the total for the entire U.S. rose about 2.3%), and is statistically significant. Of further significance is that those dates include the four weeks before and the ten weeks after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster. In 2001 the infant mortality was 6.834 per 1000 live births, increasing to 6.845 in 2007. All years from 2002 to 2007 were higher than the 2001 rate.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/06/10/is-the-increase-in-baby-deaths-in-the-us-a-result-of-fukushima-fallout/