Documentary
A journey into the intricacies of mixed-race Japanese and their multicultural experiences in modern day Japan. For some hafus, Japan is the only home they know, for some living in Japan is an entirely new experience, and the others are caught somewhere between two different…

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"Heart of the Country" is the story of Shinichi Yasutomo, the extraordinary principal of a rural elementary school in Kanayama, central Hokkaido, Northern Japan. Yasutomo is a man driven by his vision for learning and his passion for educating the heart as well as the mind. The film follows Yasutomo, his teachers and staff, students and their families over the course of one entire school year. The film is also the story of the families of Kanayama. Parents and elders of this once impoverished town embrace Yasutomo's vision, but not without wary glances back to the past. This small community, bound together by love for its children, is also defined by its journey through the cultural upheavals of postwar Japan.

Documentary made by Yunus Vally, born in the 60s into a Muslim family during the height of the Apartheid era in South Africa, which examines the impact that the discriminatory laws of the state - specifically the so-called Immorality Act that determined who you could love and the censorship regulations that clearly defined what was deemed desirable - had on his life. It is also his attempt to fathom how he could have been an ardent Trotskyite who secretly fancied blonde Afrikaans beauty queens. (Storyville)

After nearly three years living in Japan, Fergus Gregg finds himself struggling to bid farewell to this beautiful country. On a journey tracing the path of his hero, the poet Matsuo Basho, Fergus decides to trek the northern landscapes of Tohoku. As he travels, he encounters more than he bargained for - facing setbacks, meetings with traditional hunter-gathers, and dances at northern Japan's largest Summer festival. Join Fergus Gregg on his 'Road to the North'.