This project began as one of the members of FAV visited the tsunami affected town of Yamada in Iwate Prefecture soon after the Great East Japan Earthquake in order to volunteer to cook for the evacuees. The project is comprised of two separate activities, photo + film. The film project is motivated by a wish to keep in touch with the survivors and is built on a cycle of filming and screening in Yamada. “Yamada” is a common name in Japan that could be any place or anyone. Where or who is it that would be dear to YOU? The photo project has developed in this period leading up to one year after the disaster, so as to photograph this moment in which one stands with thoughts of each of our “Yamada.” The photographs are strung together like an infinitely spreading quilt on the web. The idea of “standing in silence” was inspired by the Women in Black standing action.
Click here for a song of tsunami survivors ‘Here Lives My Heart’ which we’ve encountered through the film project.

A world-wide network of women committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to injustice, war, militarism and other forms of violence. It is not an organization but a means of communicating and a formula for action. Its actions often take the form of women wearing black, standing in a public place in silence.