Isamu Hirabayashi is an incredibly versatile man. The 39-year-old Shizuoka native's day job is to direct TV commercials, and he normally works on five or six projects at the same time. Since 2002, he has also been active as a filmmaker, with his short films being shown at numerous festivals overseas, such as at Cannes and Sundance.
Following the March 11 quake and tsunami and the meltdowns at Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant last year, however, Hirabayashi says he found himself jobless for months, as corporate sponsors pulled their TV ads and stopped commissioning people like him to make new ones. So he decided to devote his free time to creating his first short animated film, "663114."
Little did he imagine back then that the movie would win a "special mention" award — the second-place winner — in a category of films selected by a youth jury, called Generation 14plus, at last month's Berlin International Film Festival.