UNC student documentary premieres at Varsity Theatre, explores food, grief in Japan

“Flavors and Faces of Resilience,” a student-made short film, will premiere Friday at 8:30 p.m. at the Varsity Theatre. The film, shot in Japan by four UNC students over winter break, follows three Japanese individuals, who all have a unique connection to food and its power to bring people together. It explores how food connects with grief, memory and identity.

Elizah Liberty Van Lokeren, a senior studying media and journalism and social and economic injustice, took a food and culture seminar, last semester. Dealing with a loss last fall, the idea of grief — and its connection to food — kept resurfacing to her. Her professor, Jim Ferguson, who died in January, pushed her to explore these ideas further, she said. 

Van Lokeren spent time researching the specific relationship between nourishment and grief, finding sources dating back to 250 B.C.E. 

“Finding scholarship like that felt like it realized the things that I had already been thinking in my head about the research paper, but made it possible, to feel like it was justified, almost,” she said. 

Van Lokeren shared her abstract and research with her roommate, Michaela Tse, a senior studying global studies. Tse's grandmother lives in Japan next to a shop that sells flowers for Obon — a Japanese celebration that honors one’s ancestors, similar to Día de los Muertos, Tse said. 

This connection helped the two create an initial pitch for a documentary in Japan, which they presented to Gary Mukai, the director of the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education at Stanford University. Mukai asked how the two could make the topic more historically relevant.

Tse said that through Mukai’s guidance, they started investigating Hiroshima Hibakusha — a Japanese term for Hiroshima bomb survivors. Through the Hiroshima Hibakusha, they further explored how food is utilized as a symbol of remembrance. 

With a more specific vision for the short film, the two brought on Nathan Poesel, a UNC graduate, who specializes in camera work and creative storytelling, and Gracie Young, a senior who is a double major in peace, war and defense and global studies. 

“ Everybody's skills seemed to align perfectly for what we needed for the film,” Tse said. 

Working with Sachiko Kato, a producer from the Hiroshima Television Corporation, the team found interviewees in Japan, including Toshiyuki Mimaki, a Nobel Peace Prize winner advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons; Toshiko Kajiyama, a restaurant owner and Hibakusha; and Isamu Ohka, an oyster farmer and second generation Hibakusha.

The group held meetings up until they left in December, and even though some logistical details were still up in the air, Tse said, they packed up their equipment and headed to Japan. 

Filming took the team all across Japan, from an oyster boat to the countryside of Hiroshima. Alex Emerson, a student at Waseda University in Tokyo, served as the group’s translator for the Hiroshima interviews and helped them feel confident in their ideas and goals. 

“ It was just people from all parts of life and timings of life coming together to work on something super beautiful and we're all passionate about,” Tse said.

In their exploration of food as it relates to grief in Japan, a food the group researched was Okonomiyaki, a grilled dish that translates to “grill anything you like,” according to Tse. The dish emerged as an inexpensive yet filling meal after World War II due to a rice shortage. 

“ Almost every person we talked to was like, ‘Yes, this is the food of Hiroshima,’” Young said. “‘This is the story of our rebirth.’”

The team found other small signs of rebirth through food as well, like sweet potato, which was almost nonexistent during the rebuilding period in Hiroshima after the bombing, Young said. Now, sweet potato is everywhere.

“It's so beautiful to see the little ways that this very tragic memory continues to live on,” Young said. “And this community remembers in every small action, and that they come together through food and continue to come together even today.”

It’s difficult to tell that Hiroshima had been almost completely wiped out only 80 years ago, Tse said, and it’s a strong city full of strong spirits whose stories they had the opportunity to hear. 

Poesel, who took charge of editing the film alongside Van Lokeren, said that while editing, the two worked with UNC students who helped them translate and refine their interviews, adding nuance that fleshed out the tone and message of the film.

“I would say people are willing and open to share their stories,” Van Lokeren said. “And you're fortunate if you get to hear them.”

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