Ushiku: Documentary Film Screening and Q&A with the Director Thomas Ash
Ushiku, 2021 dir. Thomas Ash
Ushiku takes viewers deep into the psychological and physical environment inhabited by foreign detainees in one of the largest immigration centres in Japan. On the eve of Japan’s recent – and highly contentious – immigration reform efforts, the media blackout the government has imposed on its immigration centres is bypassed, bringing viewers into immediate contact with the detainees, many of whom are refugees seeking asylum. Detainees are held indefinitely and subject to violent deportation attempts by Japanese authorities against a background of the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic and with the spectacle of the Tokyo Olympics looming on the immediate horizon.
Director Thomas Ash
In his films, Thomas Ash broadly focuses on issues surrounding health and medicine, including two feature documentaries about children living in areas of Fukushima contaminated by the 2011 nuclear meltdown, ‘In the Grey Zone‘ (2012) and ‘A2-B-C‘ (2013). His recent work has focused on death and dying and includes ‘-1287‘ (2014) and ‘Sending Off’ (2019). Thomas served as Executive Producer of ‘Boys for Sale’ (2017, dir.: Itako), a documentary about male sex workers in Tokyo.
Program
14.00 - 14.10: Welcome and Introductory Remarks, Beata Świtek, Assistant Professor, University of Copenhagen
14.10 - 15.40: Ushiku film screening; 87 min.
15.40 - 16.20: Q&A with the director Thomas Ash (via Zoom)