Issue:
November 2024
Join the Film Committee …
... on November 12 at 6 pm for a sneak preview of the eye-opening documentary A Big Home by director Ryo Takebayashi. In Japan, as we learn in the opening minutes of the film, approximately 42,000 children are living in dedicated facilities due to parental death, illness, abuse or poverty. When the adolescents in the facility at the heart of A Big Home are asked whether they see it as their home or merely the place they live, and whether those they live with are like family members, friends or something else, what they have to say is by turns upsetting and uplifting. While a straightforward documentary might encompass in-depth interviews with the staff of the facility or the teachers at the school the children attend, Takebayashi and his producer, Takumi Saitoh, who initiated the project, never stray from keeping their focus on the voices of the young people. It is a bold choice with a beautiful payoff. A Big Home challenges us to rethink our own definitions of “home,” “family” and what society considers to be “normal.” Takebayashi and Saitoh will be on hand for the Q&A session following the screening (A Big Home, Japan, 2024, 123 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles).
Thomas Ash is a documentary filmmaker and a Film Committee member.
