12 ore 21 ottob 2021 anni - MINAMATA Media Coverage Social Media

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FROM EKATHIMERINI

The ‘Minamata’ project: Hope through despair

Like a modern-day Pieta, the lens captures a mother cradling her deformed child while bathing her. “Tomoko in her Bath,” taken by influential American photojournalist W. Eugene Smith in 1971, is the starting point for more than just the film drama “Minamata,” directed by US artist and director Andrew Levitas.

Inspired by Smith’s work, Levitas presents a multifaceted project to tell the story of Minamata, a Japanese village suffering from the effects of widespread mercury poisoning caused by industrial pollution, when the photojournalist was there to memorialize and share the agony of its inhabitants with the wider world.

Levitas uses film to share the story with a new global audience, one that has mostly forgotten the small village. The artist also complements the movie with an exhibition of metalwork installations, currently displayed at the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation in central Athens.

However, the movie does not wallow in the despair. Levitas reveals how Smith’s “Tomoko in her Bath” inspired him to see beyond the evil and find the good. He glimpsed into the duality of human nature with one image, with Tomoko’s condition speaking to the very worst of human indifference and callousness juxtaposed with the love of a mother.

Duality runs all through his “Minamata” work. His metal pipe installation is the bringer of both life (water) and death (mercury poisoning). In the film, almost no character is past redemption and salvation, especially the troubled protagonist Eugene Smith.

This is most likely because Levitas, in his own words, seeks “not just to condemn but to uplift and inspire.” Because the ultimate message of the project is hope. The fight is not lost. Everyone is capable of change; everyone can make a difference. Perhaps this is why the movie starts with the thumping 70s rock anthem by Ten Years After “I’d Love to Change the World” and Levitas hopes he can leave it up to you.

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