Winter Film Series: Day of the Western Sunrise

The series will then turn on Monday-Saturday, March 11-16, to “Day of the Western Sunrise,” which is a documentary produced by Zeeland native Keith Reimink that follows three survivors from a Japanese tuna fishing boat who were fishing off the coast of the Marshall Islands when the U.S. detonated Castle Bravo, the first in a series of hydrogen weapon tests. The film adapted a Japanese storytelling method known as “kamishibai,” which means “paper drama,” to intimately retell the fishermen’s story of enduring endless medical tests, radiation sickness and loss. Paying homage to this Japanese art form, all the film’s scenes consist of individual drawings with paper texture being animated in a 3D environment. The film is in Japanese with English subtitles and is not rated.