Sending Off
- Friday, May 31, 16:30 Naxoshalle Kino
- おみおくり〜Sending Off〜
Omiokuri 〜Sending Off〜 - Japan 2019, 79 min, Japanese with English subtitles
- Director, camera, production & world sales: Ian Thomas Ash
- World premiere in the presence of the director and the protagonist Dr. Kaoru KONTA
- Competition Nippon Docs Award
SENDING OFF follows the patients of Dr. Kaoru KONTA and her team of nurses as they provide hospice care to patients in their homes in rural Japan. A special focus is directed at the deepening relationships the patients form with their families as they reach the end of their lives. Sometimes difficult to watch, the film challenges us to think about how we live our own lives and how we would like to die.
Director's Bio
Ian Thomas Ash received his MA in Film and Television Production from the University of Bristol. His first feature-length documentary, THE BALLAD OF VICKI AND JAKE (2006), was internationally acclaimed. Himself a US citizen, he has been living as a documentary filmmaker in Japan for more than 15 years. His films have focused on issues surrounding the health care system, death and dying. At NIPPON CONNECTION, he has received the Nippon Visions Award in 2013 for his Fukushima documentary A2-B-C (2013) as well as the Nippon Visions Audience Award in 2015 for -1287 (2014).