EXCLUSIVE: Valparaiso Pictures has wrapped shooting on documentary The Toxic Pigs of Fukushima, directed by BAFTA nominee Otto Bell (The Eagle Huntress), with Emmy winner Joe Bini (You Were Never Really Here) on board to edit.
The 40-minute doc charts the destruction wrought by the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 which triggered a tsunami, nuclear meltdown and mass evacuations. Through the central metaphor of radiated wild boars that now roam the region, Bell and longtime collaborator, cinematographer Simon Niblett, follow the everyday lives of a handful of citizens still struggling to make a life in the much-changed landscape.
Above we can reveal the first-look image from the film.
Los Anglees-based production firm Valparaiso fully financed with David Carrico and Adam Paulsen for Valparaiso and Bell’s Kissaki Films producing. CAA Media Finance is handling sales.
The film was in part inspired by the photographs of Toru Hanai and Yuki Iwanami, who are co-producers. Music is provided by Japanese ambient artist Midori Takada.
Bell’s BAFTA-nominated first documentary The Eagle Huntress premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and was distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.
Bini won a Sundance award for best editing on the HBO documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired and an Emmy for his writing on the same documentary. Other editing credits include Amazon’s You Were Never Really Here; American Honey, which starred Shia LaBeouf and Sasha Lane and won the Judge’s Award at Cannes; and lauded doc Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog, one of 27 films Bini collaborated on with the renowned director.
Valparaiso recently announced its is partnering with Mattel Films and Daniel Kaluuya’s 59% to develop a live-action motion picture based on Barney, Mattel’s iconic purple dinosaur.
Bell is represented by CAA. Bini is repped by WME.