Following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 in the Tohoku region, survivors received nearly every type of aid imaginable from thousands of volunteers, ranging from hot meals to haircuts. But they also faced long, soul-deadening hours in shelters and temporary housing, with little in the way of entertainment or inspiration.
Identifying that need early on and acting to fill it was veteran film publicist and coordinator Eiko Mizuno Gray, who now heads Loaded Films — a company providing subtitling and other services to the film industry. Together with Yuichi Namiki, president of Saitama-based home-theater company Budscene, she launched Niji-iro Cinema, an initiative for bringing films to disaster survivors (and named after the Japanese word for "rainbow").
"Through working for film festivals since the late 1990s, I realized that film is not just entertainment but a way to learn about other worlds," comments Mizuno Gray. "In recent years I've wanted to provide that opportunity to people with little access to films. I originally planned to hold a charity screening for kids living in the Smokey Mountain garbage dump in the Philippines. But soon after the disaster hit Japan I changed my focus to Tohoku."