Friday, June 11, 2021

"Ushiku" featured in Japan Times

Honoured and grateful that “Ushiku” was featured on the entire back page of today’s The Japan Times.


(日本語は下記にあります)
 
“I was really compelled to film because I was a witness to human rights abuses. I literally believed it was possible (the detainees) were going to die. And I realized that just volunteering wasn’t going to work. It was going to help the people there, but not change the situation.”
 
To effect change, Ash believed that “it was imperative to collect what I believed would be evidence; the goal wasn’t just to make a film.” One powerful piece of that evidence is video footage, taken inside the Ushiku facility, of guards piling on a vocally protesting detainee with postures and attitudes reminiscent of George Floyd’s murder. The detainee, known only as Deniz, even says “I can’t breathe, you’re choking me” at one point, though he survives and becomes one of Ash’s interviewees.
 
In March, the death of a Sri Lankan woman at an immigration facility in Nagoya elicited widespread condemnation. Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali had spent months fruitlessly complaining to staff of ill health, and public criticism increased when it was revealed that the facility had refused her repeated requests for outside hospital treatment — while releasing dozens of other detainees due to coronavirus infection concerns.
 
Soon after her death, the government and the ruling coalition dropped plans to amend the nation’s immigration law to make it even stricter, including a proposal to criminally prosecute asylum seekers who do not comply with deportation orders.
 
But as Thomas Ash shows in his new documentary “Ushiku,” the conditions endured by detainees in Japan’s 17 immigration centers under the current law are bad enough, driving many to go on hunger strikes or attempt suicide — with some dying in the process.
 
Read the FULL article here: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2021/06/11/films/ushiku-documentary-immigration-centers/
 
私は、人権侵害の目撃者です。ですから、どうしても撮影したかったのです。私は文字通り、(拘留者が)死ぬかもしれないと全く疑いもなく思いました。そして、ただボランティアをするだけではだめだと。そこにいる人たちを助けることはできても、状況を変えることはできないと思いました。
 
アッシュは、変化をもたらすためには、「自分が信じる証拠を集めることが不可欠であり、ただ映画を作ることが目的ではない」と考えました。その証拠のひとつが、牛久の施設内で撮影された、声を上げて抗議する被収容者に警備員達が、それはまるでジョージ・フロイド殺害事件を彷彿とさせる姿勢で、襲いかかっている強烈な映像だ。デニズと名乗るその被収容者は、「息ができない、首を絞められている」とさえ言っていたが、なんとか生き延び、アッシュのインタビュー対象の一人となった。
 
3月には、名古屋の入国管理局でスリランカ人女性が死亡するという事件が発生し、大きな非難を浴びました。ラットナヤケ・リャナゲ・ウィシュマ・サンダマリさんは、何ヶ月も体調不良を職員に訴え続けていましたが、施設側がコロナウイルス感染の懸念から他の数十人の収容者を釈放する一方で、彼女が外部の病院で治療を受けたいという再三の要請を拒否していたことが明らかになり、世論の批判が高まりました。
 
彼女の死後すぐに、政府と連立与党は、国外退去命令に従わない亡命者を刑事訴追するなど、入管法をさらに厳しく改正する計画であったが、これを中止した。
 
しかし、トーマス・アッシュ監督の新作ドキュメンタリー「牛久」によると、現行法の下で日本の17カ所の入国管理センターに収容されている被収容者の状況は最悪で、多くの人がハンガーストライキや自殺に追い込まれ、その過程で命を落とす人もいるという。

Monday, June 07, 2021

"Ushiku" awarded in Germany

“Ushiku” has been awarded the Nippon Docs Award in the 2021 Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival in Frankfurt, Germany! Thank you all so very much for your support. We will continue to work hard to share the voices of the courageous participants in the film with people in Japan and around the world.
 
Per audience vote, the Nippon Docs Award went to the documentary Ushiku by Thomas Ash, dealing with a current, highly controversial political issue. The film accuses human rights violations in the eponymous immigration center near Tokyo, as well as Japan’s current immigration policies. The award was given out for the second time this year.
 
Official Press Release: https://nipponconnection.com/en/press-releases/nippon-connection-2021-award-winners/ 
 
VIDEO of Award Ceremony: https://www.ushikufilm.com/en/press/nippon-docs-award-ceremony/

 
2021年ニッポン・コネクション映画祭にて「牛久」がドキュメンタリー部門のグランプリを頂きました!感謝しております。
プレースリリス:https://nipponconnection.com/ja/press-releases/nippon-connection-2021-award-winners/