Noriaki Tsuchimoto, The Shiranui Sea (Shiranuikai)(1975)
This film is part of the exhibition Shoreline Movements, a program of non-fiction films curated by Erika Balsom and Grégory Castéra (Council), in a space designed by Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, for the Taipei Biennial 2020.
In 1965, Noriaki Tsuchimoto initiated what would become a sustained practice of chronicling the socio-political, environmental, legal, and medical dimensions of mercury poisoning in and around Minamata Bay. Across some seventeen films, Tsuchimoto charted how methylmercury in the wastewater of a chemical factory owned by the Chisso Corporation decimated marine life and caused severe neurological problems and fatalities in those who ate the contaminated seafood. Made after Chisso was found guilty of corporate negligence in 1973, The Shiranui Sea explores how daily life went on in the area. Tsuchimoto does not shy away from the depiction of suffering and insists on accountability, while manifesting a tremendous capacity for listening and compassion. Human and non-human life are shown to be mutually interdependent, with both emerging as vulnerable to harm and resilient in its aftermath. 1 2
Noriaki Tsuchimoto
The Shiranui Sea (Shiranuikai)
Film, 153:00
1975
DIRECTOR
Noriaki Tsuchimoto
CAMERA
Koshiro Otsu
Masashi Ichinose
Toru Okagaki
SOUND
Koichi Asanuma
Masanori Miyashita
EDITING
Noriaki Tsuchimoto
Keiko Ichihara
MUSIC
Teizo Matsumura
Takayuki Oguri
NARRATOR
Soichi Ito
TITLE LETTERING
Hiroko Ichinose
PRODUCER
Ryutaro Takagi
PRODUCTION
Seirinsha Productions
Top image : Film still, image courtesy of Seirinsha.
SHORELINE MOVEMENTS
Movement 1
Black Beach / Forces / The Dead / Camp
— Beatriz Santiago Munoz
The Shiranui Sea (Shiranuikai)
— Tsuchimoto Noriaki
Lagos Island
— Karimah Ashadu
Movement 2
Becoming Alluvium
— Thao Nguyen Phan
malni – towards the ocean, towards the shore/a>
— Sky Hopinka
At Land
— Maya Deren
Movement 3
Dead Sea Drawings (Part 1)
— Edith Dekyndt
The Two Sights
— Joshua Bonnetta
blue mantle
— Rebecca Meyers
Movement 4
Nefandus
— Carlos Motta
Voices of Orchid Island
— Hu Tail-li
The Pearl Button (El Boton de nacar)
— Patrico Guzman
Movement 5
Y Berá – Bright Waters
— Jessica Sarah Rinland
Slow Action
— Ben Rivers
Flat Jungle (De platte jungle)
— Johan van der Kreuken
Movement 6
The Blackest Sea
— Peggy Ahwesh
A Moon Made of Iron (Una luna de hierro)
— Francisco Rodriguez
The worldly Cave
— Zhou Tao