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久保田徹  Toru Kubota

Toru Kubota

Documentary Filmmaker

Born in 1996. While he was a bachelor student in political science, he documented the situation of the Rohingya internment camps in western Myanmar and created “Light up Rohingya” (2016), which solidified his decision to use his camera to give voice to the voiceless. Later, he collaborated with media companies such as the BBC, NHK World, and Al Jazeera. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Tokyo, he earned acclaim for co-directing the NHK program “Tokyo Ritornello (2020)” which shed light on the often overlooked and marginalized immigrant communities facing hardship in Japan.In In 2023, he co-founded the Docu Athan project with Yuki Kitazumi, an initiative dedicated to supporting journalists in Myanmar.

PROJECT

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The project to support creators who fight military oppression

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ドキュ・アッタン -クーデター軍による弾圧と闘うミャンマーのクリエイターたち-
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“Docu Athan" is an online platform to support Burmese creators (journalists/filmmakers/artists etc). “Athan” means “voice” “opinion” in Burmese. Viewers can donate directly to creators.

FILM

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59 min. Aired on July 18, 2024 Director・Camera・Editor / Toru Kubota

Three years ago, a coup took place in Myanmar. The military's oppression claimed the lives of many citizens. Amid this turmoil, some fled to a border town in Thailand, taking up cameras as their weapon to fight back. Among them is a cameraman with a prosthetic leg who ventures to the frontlines of conflict to show the world the reality of their homeland. There's also a former Myanmar soldier broadcasting programs calling on his former comrades to surrender. This is a record of resistance through visual storytelling, captured by documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota, who was once detained by Myanmar authorities.

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11 min. Yahoo! News Expert
Published on August 10, 2023 
Director・Camera・Editor/ Toru Kubota

FILM

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59 min. Aired on July 18, 2024 Director・Camera・Editor / Toru Kubota

A record of listening to the "little voices" (Ritornello) of those living on the fringes of society in Tokyo during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the state of emergency to autumn. Among them are individuals who lost their jobs and were evicted from internet cafes, left with nowhere to go. Members of support groups remark, "Poverty is the result of an unkind society." In Shinjuku's Kabuki-cho, labeled the "nightlife district," a rapper expresses anger, "When times were good, they came here for women, and now they discard us during COVID." A sex worker, unable to take a break even during the pandemic, shares her struggle: "I'm supporting my education as a single mother. I wish people would stop looking at me through tinted lenses." Meanwhile, a Kurdish asylum seeker on "provisional release" murmurs, "We are living in a never-ending lockdown."

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-Myanmar and Democracy-

When I first visited Myanmar in 2015, people were enthusiastic about the future that democracy would bring. Within the country, which seemed to be covered in the light of hope, there were also shadows. At that time, I visited the "internment camps" of the Rohingya and captured footage of their conditions, which has become a valuable record that still holds true today. The existence of the Buddhist group "Ma Ba Tha," which collaborates with the military to incite hatred against Muslims. The challenge of punk musicians seeking to foster exchanges with ethnic minorities through music. The journey of an activist, who is a Buddhist Burmese, to Bangladesh to learn about the situation of the Rohingya. I became deeply involved with the people living in a country where shadows and light coexist. After the coup in February 2021, Myanmar once again fell under the shadow as a whole.

『Light up Rohingya』〈ミャンマーラカイン州で隔離される"ロヒンギャ族"の現実〉【English CC】
22:38
🇲🇲 An Unholy Alliance: Monks and the Military in Myanmar | Featured Documentary
47:35
『#Save Myanmar』-在日ミャンマー人たちの群像-
04:21
EMPATHY TRIP -The Burmese Buddhists Travel to Bangladesh to meet the Rohingyas- #WeAreRohingya
13:27
Myanmar's rock'n roll sheds lights on democracy | Documentary "Punk Save the Queen"
19:54
Prayer in Peace 【UFPFF 2018出展】
05:00
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-Asylum Seekers-

At the beginning of the pandemic, people around the world shared the common experience of having their freedom to some extent taken away. The term "lockdown" has become nostalgic, but at that time, we certainly went through it. Back then, I thought about people whose freedom was perpetually taken away. Foreigners detained in immigration centers in Japan and those who was provisionally released, but restricted their freedom of movement. Capturing their situations on film would slightly, but certainly, resonate with people's hearts more than before. After filming "Endless Lockdown" with Ali, a Kurdish man, I was led to meet various former detainees as if guided by fate.

『終わらないロックダウン』Full version [English CC]
14:43
『祈りの再現』[English, Spanish, French, Korean  CC] オリンピックと入管収容所
12:23
『牛久の記憶』-入管収容所で暴行を受けたクルド人の追憶- 【English CC】
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-Government Fraud-

In March 2018, when I heard the news that a civil servant who had been ordered to tamper with official documents committed suicide, it was shocking. The person was Toshio Akagi, and he had been working at the Kinki Regional Taxation Bureau. I came across Masako Akagi, Toshio's wife, and started taking film of her. In contrast to the ugliness of the state power that ordered Toshio to tamper with the documents, her soul, which has maintained kindness, was beautiful. By carefully filming her life, I felt like I could encounter Toshio that had fallen out from her life. Through filmmaking, I wanted to resist the world that tries to forget him.

『私は真実が知りたい』赤木さんの遺書を託されたジャーナリスト・相澤冬樹[English CC]
02:09
『私は真実が知りたい』-森友学園問題の公文書改ざんをした夫、赤木俊夫を忘れさせないために- [English CC] #赤木ファイル #赤木雅子
08:41
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-Tokyo Ritornello-

In April 2020, amidst the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was walking around the outskirts of Tokyo, filming. I worked with Itaru Matsui and Naoki Uchiyama, who aimed to incorporate filmmaking into social movements by supporting anti-poverty workers and protesters. We named this project "Docu Meme," with the goal of integrating film records into society like genetic memes. I filmed the world through the perspective of Ali, a Kurdish man who sees Tokyo from the periphery. The short films we produced at Docu Meme were later re-edited into a feature-length film called "Tokyo Ritornello" and aired on NHK . The city of Tokyo appeared as if it were a single living organism, that was something I had never seen before.

『東京リトルネロ』予告編 [English CC]

『東京リトルネロ』予告編 [English CC]

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-Docu Meme Shorts-

Short films produced as part of the documentary collective "Docu Meme," which originated during the COVID-19 pandemic. We attempted to connect support for the impoverished and social movements with film. These films were shot between 2020 and 2021. This is a record of our practice aiming to memeify and integrate them into society.

The hidden sight of Tokyo's homeless - BBC News
04:25
『国会前サイレントデモ』 [English CC] #検察庁法改正案に抗議します
02:14
『難民の歌』-祖国に帰れない人々の叫び- [English CC]
02:14
『#入管法改悪に反対します』
02:21
『#Save Myanmar』-在日ミャンマー人たちの群像-
04:21
『♬反五輪音頭』The Anti-Olympics Song
02:20
『自由の臨界地点』[English CC]
02:21
『生まれ変わった自民党』赤木雅子と総裁選:私は真実が知りたい
01:54
『となりで暮らす難民』僕たち私たちにできること [English CC]
02:21
『私は真実が知りたい』赤木さんの遺書を託されたジャーナリスト・相澤冬樹[English CC]
02:09
『終わらないロックダウン』[English CC]
02:21
『コロナ禍の若者たちの困窮』[English CC]
02:21
『警察による外国人差別の実態』[English CC]
02:14
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-Japan's Craftsmanship-

Through my experience in filmmaking, I came across something like intelligence embedded in human body. The movements of craftsmen seemed to sculpt things be preserved within the grand flow of time. I aspired for my own filmmaking to be similar, capturing that essence.

Kioke Breweries Revival Episode1  YAMAROKU SOY SAUCE in Shodoshima island,Japan _ヤマロク醤油(香川県 小豆島)
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Kioke Breweries Revival Episode4: Pursuing the True Soy Sauce_INOUE HONTEN in Nara, Japan
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YUGETA SHOYU|The craftsmen stories : Pride in Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce ONLY in Japan
02:45
ADACHI JOZO|The craftsmen stories : Pride in Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce ONLY in Japan
02:48
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©2023 Toru Kubota

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