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August 6 amid the pandemic: Hiroshima Film Commission to provide 4K video of present Hiroshima, encourages use by overseas media

(by Yumi Kanazaki, Staff Writer)

The Hiroshima Film Commission (FC), which is based in Naka Ward of Hiroshima, is preparing 4K video filmed in the central part of Hiroshima as overseas media cannot come to Hiroshima because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This super high-definition video will be provided free of charge on the Internet. The FC hopes it will encourage overseas media to report on the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing.

Hideyuki Tokigawa, 47, a film director based in Hiroshima, has been helping with this effort. He has shot at about 15 locations, filming the A-bomb Dome, the Peace Memorial Museum, the city’s official flower, oleander, and other scenes. To make them easy to use in TV news programs, each one is about 15 seconds long. “People used to say no plants would grow in Hiroshima for 75 years. I hope these films will show what path Hiroshima has taken after the war and what the city is like now,” said Mr. Tokigawa, who has directed such movies as “Dancing in her Dreams” and “Carp’s Hanatheather.” (Hanatheather is a combination of hanashi (story) and theater.”

Being apprehensive the destruction wrought by the atomic bomb on Hiroshima would be given only scant coverage overseas in the 75th year after the event, Tomoko Nishizaki, 54, of the FC decided to provide the films.

The FC invites and supports film shooting in Hiroshima, and it supported 254 location units in 2015, the 70th year of the atomic bombing. Thirty-eight of them were crews from overseas. As Hiroshima began to attract more attention after Barack Obama, former President of the United States, and the Pope visited the city, the FC was expecting to invite more location units this year than it invited five years ago.

Due to the novel corona virus pandemic, however, the state-run broadcasting station of Austria and others has opted out of coming to Japan. The FC has no plan to support overseas media this year. Except for major broadcasters, which have a branch in Tokyo, most of the overseas broadcasting stations find it difficult to do on-site reporting in Hiroshima.

“It’s important reporters from different countries continue to report Hiroshima from their unique viewpoints. I hope they will continue (covering Hiroshima),” said Ms. Nishizaki. The website of the FC will provide a link from which people can download these films on August 1, encouraging people to utilize them.

(Originally published on July 31, 2020)

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