The Big Root S1E7 Human People
This episode is supported by JapanCulture•NYC, the English-language website about all things Japanese in New York City.
Naomi Mizoguchi is a documentary filmmaker and the founder of GARA FILMS whose work focuses on preserving indigenous cultures. Her latest Japanese-language film Ainu | Hito (or English title Ainu – Indigenous People of Japan) follows four elders of an Ainu community in the town of Biratori, which is located in Hidaka Subprefecture in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. Since she moved to New York in 2004, Naomi has been involved with Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV), a nonprofit media company based in Civic Center, Manhattan. Established in Chinatown in 1972 and moved to an abandoned firehouse in 1978, DCTV functions as a resource of the community, renting film equipment and hosting video workshops, and as an independent film production company, producing popular documentaries and garnering countless accolades. Before he talks to Naomi about her film, Toshiki speaks with Keiko Tsuno. Originally a conceptual artist with a black-and-white camera, she and her husband Jon Alpert founded DCTV to give voices to underrepresented communities and to highlight important social issues. Keiko describes why her documentary Healthcare: Your Money or Your Life has been important in her career of over four decades and how she espouses the Japanese principle of wa (“harmony”) in her leadership of DCTV.
The word “Ainu” means “human” in their native language, and with an estimated population of 20,000 Ainu living in Hokkaido, they were officially recognized as an indigenous group by the Japanese government in April 2019. Naomi explains how important the Ainu politician Shigeru Kayano was for the Ainu ethnic movement and shares the story of one of the subjects of Ainu | Hito, Kazunobu Kawanano. Kazunobu-san invited Naomi to stay with him in Biratori when she first visited in 2008, and a museum curator asked her to create a film about Biratori in 2015. In the spirit of community media, Naomi created this documentary on the sole condition that the Biratori community get involved with its production and dissemination, and the film was produced in collaboration with Nibutani Ainu Cultural Museum. The world premiere of Ainu | Hito was held in Biratori in June 2018, and it has since screened in major cities in Japan. She recently translated the film to English and will be screening it for American audiences. A native of Hyogo Prefecture, Naomi is a wajin (or mainland Japanese person), but also involved in Okinawan musical activities, she embodies the resilience of traditional cultures of Japan. This episode celebrating the power of video to give voices to indigenous peoples airs on the United Nations International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.