Ayako IMAMURA 今村彩子
The Connecting Bridge
架け橋～聞こえなかった3.11
Nippon Visions ½
Eleven days after the Tohoku earthquake in March 2011, deaf director Ayako IMAMURA visited the affected Miyagi area, where she documented the situation of deaf people over a period of two years and four months. Her film is a strong portrayal of a minority ignored by the government and regular news coverage.
架け橋～聞こえなかった3.11
Kakehashi - Kikoenakatta 3.11
Japan 2013
74 minutes
Director
Ayako IMAMURA
Cinematography
Ayako IMAMURA, Hideaki ARAI, Yoshihiro WATANABE, Hazim FURUKAWA, Kiyoko YANAGI
Production
Me-de-Kiku TV
World sales
Ayako IMAMURA
About Ayako IMAMURA
今村彩子
Born in Nagoya, Ayako IMAMURA studied sign language at Aichi University as well as film and deaf culture at California State University. Since 2001, she has been shooting documentary films about the everyday life of deaf people. Raising awareness about the discrimination of deaf people in Japan through lectures and film screenings, she also teaches sign language at Japanese universities. At Nippon Connection, her other documentary films THE CONNECTING BRIDGE (2013 / NC’14) and START LINE (2016 / NC ‘17) were also screened.