Hiroshima Nagasaki Download - 2012 Shinsedai Cinema Festival @ The Revue Cinema

Co-presented with the Pan-Asia Student Society, University of Toronto

HOW DID THE TRAGEDY OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI SHAPE THE LIVES OF THEIR SURVIVORS? AND HOW DO THE LIVES OF THOSE SURVIVORS LIVING IN AMERICA DIFFER FROM THEIR JAPANESE COUNTERPARTS?

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed the world forever, but a walk through both cities today show how far the world has come since those tragic days. Those who survived the attacks, the hibakusha, or "explosion-affected people", can never truly move on from their experiences of August 6th and August 9th, 1945. A group of hibakusha attempted to start a new life in America and it is the stories of those people who artist and filmmaker Shinpei Takeda and producer Eiji Wakamatsu seek out in their documentary Hiroshima Nagasaki Download.

These two old school friends go on a road trip down from Vancouver through the United States speaking to 18 survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These people share not only their traumatizing experiences of August 1945, but also how they have tried to reconcile their Japanese heritage with the culture of their adopted homeland, the country which bombed Japan over 65 years ago. For their part, Takeda and Wakamatsu attempt to "download" the almost unbelievable stories of these men and women so that they can be communicated to Japan's current generation.

The screening of HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI DOWNLOAD will be preceded by Bunji Sotoyama's short film ON THIS SIDE.

TICKETS AND PASSES FOR THE 2012 SHINSEDAI CINEMA FESTIVAL GO ON SALE JUNE 21ST!