SIGNIS JAPAN has chosen “Tonaru-Hito (Never Let Me Go)” (85 min. color) by Director Kazuya Tachikawa as the premier film for Japan Catholic Film Award of 2012. The Award Ceremony and Screening will be held at Kawasaki Art Center on June 22, 2013.
The film depicts eight (8) years of daily life at a small nursing institution for children; the children who cannot live with their parents due to various reasons, the “neighboring” child-caretakers, and the parents wishing to live with their children again. This documentary excludes narration, music, explanatory subtitles. The viewers will face a very crucial question of “What is a true family?”, “What is love?” Mucchan, 9 years old, refused by her mother, was deeply hurt and troubled. To her, Mariko, the child-caretakerr, said; “I love you always.” Instantly Mucchan’s face brightened. Children seek a special person/persons who is/are always next to them and by their side. Aren’t we the same as they?
For the trailer, click
http://www.tonaru-hito.com/trailer.html
The film will participate Seoul Independent Documentary Film & Video Festival
(http://www.sidof.org/) the end of March 2013.
(The below article is from Pamphlet of Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2011)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
NEVER LET ME GO
Children removed from their parents due to abuse or neglect live with their caretakers at the House of Children of Light. As the children long for love with all their being, the staff members try to stand beside them. It is never easy to repair and renew the relationship between parents and children. The camera gently approaches as they are tossed about on waves of expectation and despair, recording their lives and those of the staff who care for them.
Directors’s Statement:
Children living in uncertainty who continuously cry, “Don’t let me go.” The people close to them who squeeze them tight again and again. I believe that for people to achieve self-^affirmation, they need others who accept them wholly.
Tachikawa Kazuya
Member of Asia Press International. From 2001 to 2002, he reportted on victims of aerial bombing in Afghanistan for television and other outlets. He has since worked in television documentary productioon as a cameraman and as a director in Japan and in Southeast Asia.