Art and Politics (1) Okinawa—between art and activism

2022 marks the 50-year anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion from the US to Japan. Working in an Okinawa where there’s demand, albeit tacit, for historically and politically engaged art, Rico Fukuchi has developed a unique practice that ranges across both filmmaking and activism. Through a screening and talk, we open up conversation on the relationship between politics and art, and the possibility of a different kind of politics in art. The film screening includes BOUNDARIES (2020), set in the near future in a divided Okinawa; the story follows three young people who leave the safe area known as “the base,” where Americans and the wealthy live, to explore the devastated zone outside. Also screening is Childhood’s End (2022), in which Okinawa is depicted as a place with its own gaze, a place that moves, rather than as the object of another’s gaze.

Guest: Rico Fukuchi (Film Director / Writer)
Host: Tatsuki Hayashi (General Planning and Production Specialist, NAHA CULTURAL ARTS THEATER NAHArt)