The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

It's so hard to believe it happened in real life.

. . . the flower's life is so short.

There is always beauty and terror in nature,

but we forgot the terror.

March 11, 2012, marked the one-year anniversary of the devastating tsunami in Japan. So much was lost a year ago, yet this spring, the cherry tree (sakura), symbolizing life, endures and blooms in a place where grief mingles with grace and hope.

In her beautiful and moving 38-minute film The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, the trailer for which is below, Lucy Walker contrasts, through the words of survivors, what was lost and what remains, how "beauty and terror always exist in nature." In showing us how a delicate and transient flower embodies meaning for a culture, Walker reveals the depth of human beings' own resilience.  

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom Trailer from Boon Shin Ng on Vimeo.

The documentary was nominated for a 2012 Academy Award (Short Subject); it won both a 2012 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Nonfiction prize and the 2012 Polly Krakora Award at the Environmental Film Festival. 

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom on FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube

Also Of Interest

Donations

Japan's Tsunami: How It Happened in 2011 (14:55-minute video)

Pray for Japan (Feature-Length Documentary on Tohoku) on FaceBook

BBC Horizon Special 2011 Japan Part 1 and Part 2

Japan Society

2012 Centennial: National Cherry Blossom Festival (March 20 - April 27, Washington, D.C.)

Profile of Lucy Walker

Interview with Lucy Walker at Cinema Without Borders

Cody Calamaio, "Environmental Film Festival Blooms with Talent: Documentaries of Lucy Walker Honored at Festival Event in Silver Spring", Gazette, March 14, 2012

Meaning and Significance of Japanese Cherry Trees