(born 11 June 1958,

Toyama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a population of 1,044,588 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,247.61 km2 (1,640.01 sq mi). Toyama Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

) is a Japanese documentary

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

known particularly for her films on

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

and

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

Career

Graduating from

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

in 1984, Kamanaka began working as an assistant director for documentaries at Group Gendai, Iwanami Productions, and other companies. She directed her first film in 1990 and between 1990 and 1995, worked and studied in Canada and the United States, first on a grant from Japan's

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The ag ...

. Returning to Japan, she worked as a freelance director for television and film. Her film, ''

Hibakusha at the End of the World ''Hibakusha'' ( or ; ja, 被爆者 or ; "person affected by a bomb" or "person affected by exposure o radioactivity) is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at t ...

'' (also known as ''Radiation: A Slow Death''), was the first of several she has made on the problems of

nuclear radiation Ionizing radiation (or ionising radiation), including nuclear radiation, consists of subatomic particles or electromagnetic waves that have sufficient energy to ionize atoms or molecules by detaching electrons from them. Some particles can travel ...

. It won several awards, including one from the Agency for Cultural Affairs for excellence in documentary. Her next film on nuclear issues, ''

Rokkasho Rhapsody is a Japanese documentary directed by Hitomi Kamanaka and released in 2006. It is the second in Kamanaka's trilogy of films on the problems of nuclear power and radiation, preceded by '' Hibakusha at the End of the World'' (also known as ''Radiat ...

'', covered the problems surrounding the

Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant The is a nuclear reprocessing plant with an annual capacity of 800 tons of uranium or 8 tons of plutonium. It is owned by Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL) and is part of the Rokkasho complex located in the village of Rokkasho in northeast Ao ...

. Her most recent work, ''

Ashes to Honey , (literally ''"Humming of Bees and Rotation of the Earth"'') is a Japanese documentary directed by Hitomi Kamanaka and released in 2010. It is the third in Kamanaka's trilogy of films on the problems of nuclear power and radiation, preceded by ' ...

'', about residents fighting the construction of a nuclear power plant in

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). Y ...

, opened in theaters only a month before the

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...

. After the disaster, her work has garnered increased attention and she has been asked to present her work at numerous venues at home and abroad.

Selected filmography

* ''

'' (ヒバクシャ世界の終わりに Hibakusha, sekai no owari ni) (2003) (also known as ''Radiation: A Slow Death'') * ''

'' (六ヶ所村ラプソディー Rokkashomura rapusodī) (2006) * ''

'' (ミツバチの羽音と地球の回転 Mitsubachi no haoto to chikyū no kaiten) (2010) *
Little Voices from Fukushima
' (小さき声のカノン－選択する人々Chisaki koe no kannon - sentaku suru hitobito) (2014)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kamanaka, Hitomi Japanese film directors 1958 births People from Toyama Prefecture Japanese documentary filmmakers Living people People associated with nuclear power