KANA Tomoko was born in Tokyo in 1971. She became
interested in the documentary when she was a university
student and appeared on the television documentary program
directed by KORE-EDA Hirozaku (
"Nobody Knows" and "Air Doll").
After graduating university, she started her career as a news producer at Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, and went independent in 2000. In 2004, she directed a documentary "From the Land of Bitter Tears"(2004) and won the Japan Journalist Congress award and International Festival of Audiovisual Programs (FRANCE). In 2007, she won the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award at the Sundance Film Festival with her first screenplay of a narrative film, "Two by the River（tentative title）", an award given to outstanding writers. The production of this film is now underway.
Her latest work is "Beautiful Islands ~Memoirs of Sinking Islands~", a feature documentary about three beautiful islands effected by Climate Change- Tuvalu in South Pacific, Venice in Italy and Shishmaref in Alaska. The film had a world premiere at Pusan International Film Festival 2009, and won Asian Cinema Fund AND award. It opened in theaters in US and Japan in summer 2010, and n Korea in 2011.
She has been involved in numerous environmental activities since she was a student, including participation in forestation projects and processes related to Earth Summit (1992).
Contact
Horizon Features Co., Ltd.
office@kanatomoko.jp
+81-3-3357-5140
