"FROM OKINAWA WITH LOVE"

A collaborative project between KYOTOGRAPHIE 2025 Artist Mao Ishikawa and UPLINK Kyoto.
Screening on May 6 will be followed by a post-screening talk with the film's director Hiroshi Sunairi and KYOTOGRAPHIE Co-Founder and Co-Director Yusuke Nakanishi.

-The life of ugly but beautiful people, I love human beings.
Mao Ishikawa

On November 10, 1971, public opinion in Okinawa was heated over the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, which negotiated the reversion of Okinawa to Japan while leaving U.S. military bases in place. Clashes between striking workers and riot police resulted in the death of a police officer. Ishikawa, who was in her teens at the time, witnessed the incident up close. She wondered why there were so many bases in Okinawa and why there were so many incidents and accidents. This question, triggered by a clash between fellow Okinawa people, led Ishikawa to pursue a career as a photographer.

In 1975, in order to photograph U.S. soldiers, Ishikawa relied on a friend and began working at a bar in Teruya, Koza, that catered to blacks. While spending time with the women and blacks working at the bar, Ishikawa continued to take photographs, as if keeping a diary.

She continued to take photographs as if she were keeping a diary, and published three photo books that documented her life at the time: “Hot Days in Camp Hansen! (1982), “Hot Days in Okinawa” (2013), and “Akahana Akabanana, Woman of Okinawa” (2017), which capture his life in those days. Ishikawa himself says that his works are his “most cherished photographs,” and the stories of the people in them are told. A “hymn to humanity” affirming a free way of life by photographer Mao Ishikawa was born.
(Quoted from the official website)

2023/Japan, U.S.A./Japanese, English/101 min.
Director, Camera, Sound, Editing: Hiroshi Sunairi
Cast: Mao Ishikawa