GAMA

On April 1, 1945, US troops invaded Okinawa, sparking a brutal WWII battle. Many civilians hiding in caves were misled into believing they would face American brutality if they surrendered and chose suicide. In caves, Mitsuo Matsunaga narrates their tragic end in a monotone, revealing the underground agony of Okinawa's inhabitants.

'GAMA was shot entirely in Okinawa but its production was initially made possible through a partnership with the Toyonaka Performing Arts Center. When I came to a dead end while researching underground sites in Toyonaka, I learned that there was a connection between Toyonaka and Okinawa. My area of research started to go in the direction of underground spaces in Okinawa and I descended into Okinawa's underground. Knowing nothing about the limestone caves myself, Matsunaga Mitsuo, who appears in GAMA, spoke to me about the memories of these caves that had been handed down to him.

'Towards the end of shooting, he said, "I'm Matsunaga Mitsuo, of the generation born after the war," in referring to himself. For some reason I winced upon hearing it. After I let it sink in, it resonated within my body as if they were pointing me to the direction in which this work should go. These memories were passed down to him, and we are allowed to observe one part of these inherited memories as they are left behind in the form of this film. I think that this process itself is what GAMA is about.' - ODA Kaori (Excerpted from the festival catalogue of the 2023 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival)