Hanabi

If the human mind tends to banish catastrophe as inconceivable, its aftermath represents the moment when we attempt to absorb it back into the realm of reason and reinstate order. Stemming from Ana Vaz’s decade-long research and artistic production centred on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, HANABI offers an immersive exploration of irradiated human and non-human beings who resist the illusion of normalcy and choose, in Donna Haraway’s terms, to stay with the trouble. The film borrows its diaristic framing from Hayasuke Yoko’s Journal of a Radioactive Brain, a chronicle in the second person written four years after the disaster. Vaz’s film depicts radioactivity as a sensory component—its invisible presence felt in the languid, detached voice of the narrator, or in the metallic hums and creaks that pervade the soundscape. Meanwhile, the evocative 16mm images, gleaned from the neon-lit nocturnal cityscape and the vibrantly coloured sunny countryside, are fleeting in their duration, but still feel imbued with persistent fears and hopes. Yet Vaz doesn’t seek purity through form—external elements like archival video footage and email exchanges embody a cinematic contamination that, unlike its counterpart in the real world, yields resilience and survival. (Öykü Sofuoğlu)

In the presence of Ana Vaz.
 

Ana Vaz: SACRIS PULSO (2007, K), ENTRE TEMPS (2012, K), LES MAINS, NÉGATIVES (2012, K, KO-REGIE), A IDADE DA PEDRA (2013, K), OCCIDENTE (2014, K), UN FILM, RÉCLAMÉ (2015, K, KO-REGIE), HÁ TERRA! (2016, K), AMÉRIKA: BAHÍA DE LAS FLECHAS (2016, K), OLHE BEM AS MONTANHAS (2018, K), AMAZING FANTASY (2018, K), ATOMIC GARDEN (2018, K), PSEUDOSPHYNX (2020, K), APIYEMIYEKÎ? (2020, K), A ÁRVORE (2022, K), É NOITE NA AMÉRICA (2022)