November 13, 2008: Watching a Film “A Piece of Your Home”
Training Report - Leadership Development Course 2008
In this evening, the participants watched a film “A Pieace of Your Home” at JICA Tokyo. And it was for free! Not only this course's participants but other participants who are staying in JICA Tokyo were invited.
But what is the importance of this film ?
The nine participants are going to visit a facility which initially started for persons with mental disabilities next week during their regional training in Wakayama Prefecture. The facility is called Muginosato (Barley Village) and it is the model for this film.
“A Piece of Your Home” was filmed to celebrate 30th anniversary of Kyosaren (Japan Association of Community Workshops for Disabled Persons.) It depicts the often misunderstood attitudes that the Japanese people have toward mental health patients. By watching this film prior to their visit, they could learn how this organization started and what kind of frictions with the local community they had faced at initial stages. The film has successfully transformed a serious theme into an entertaining story with a strong message and the audience with different background could enjoy it very much.
Assistant Secretary General of Kyosaren, and Adviser on International Affairs of Kyosaren and
chairperson of Planning Committee of this course, were kindly present in today's event.
This film was already produced with the Spanish subtitle and shown in Costa Rica. So, the
participant from Costa Rica had already seen this film before.
After watching the film, many audiences wished to show the film in their own countries or have a
copy of the film to bring back home.
At the end of the tonight's show, some participants shared their comments:
- It was a quite personal film and it will take me long time to think about today's film. The father showed a negative image at first but he changed. That point shows the civil society's attitude for persons with disabilities.
- This film showed a negative side of the society's attitude. But persons with mental disabilities are a part of society. They should live in a society. People have a negative attitude in local area. Persons without disabilities have to know about disabilities. This film is a good way to work for local people.
- It was a very educational film. In my country, persons with mental disabilities are neglected for a long time, so now I got an idea to work for mental disabilities.
Now the participants are so expectantly looking forward to visiting the Muginosato, seeing how actually the organization has been developed based in the local community, and learning from their activities. We all thank to Kyosaren for giving this opportunity to watch the film tonight.
