Spring, On the Shores of Aga
(Haru, Aga no kishibe nite)- JAPAN / 2025 / Japanese / Color / DCP / 64 min
Director, Photography, Editing: Komori Haruka
Sound (Recorded at the Memorial Gathering): Kawakami Takuya
English Translation: Toda Hikaru
Planning, Supported by: Kiyota Maiko, Toda Hikaru, Hata Takeshi, Kasama Film Co.Ltd.
Appearances: Hatano Hideto, Kobayashi Chikako and others
Hatano Hideto has long supported the movement for unrecognized victims of Niigata Minamata Disease and was also the initiator of Sato Makoto’s 1992 film Living on the River Agano. Drawn to Hatano’s continued solitary efforts in his cultural activism, the Meido no Miyage (“Souvenirs for the Afterlife”) Project, the filmmaker relocated to the Agano River basin, quietly observing the ongoing work of passing down the memories of the land and its people.
Born in 1989, Komori completed the Graduate Program in Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts, and completed the Fiction Course at The Film School of Tokyo. Theatrical releases include Trace of Breath (2016, YIDFF 2015) and Double Layered Town / Making a Song to Replace Our Positions (2019, co-directed with Seo Natsumi, YIDFF 2019). This film received the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2025 Commission Project Special Award.