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.

1. Film still, image courtesy of Seirinsha.
2. 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