ABOUT THE MOVIE

Inspired by the true story of W. Eugene & Aileen Mioko Smith!

Minamata, a film drama based on the book by W. Eugene and Green Action director Aileen M. Smith, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2020. Directed by Andrew Levitas, the film stars Johnny Depp as photographer Eugene Smith, who travels with Aileen to Japan to document the effects of mercury poisoning on the residents of a coastal community. Actors Bill Nighy, Hiroyuki Sanada and Minami play supporting roles as Life editor Robert Hayes, activist Mitsuo Yamazaki, and Aileen Mioko Smith.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Aileen Smith was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1950. She graduated from high school in St. Louis County, Missouri. She enrolled in Stanford in 1968, dropping out after meeting the photojournalist W. Eugene Smith in New York. Together they photographed Japan’s mercury pollution disaster in Minamata, Japan, publishing their book, Minamata (1975). 

Aileen has a masters degree in environmental science from Columbia University’s School of Public Health. She became active in the anti-nuclear movement in Japan during the early 1980s, after interviewing citizens around the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Aileen is currently the executive director of the NGO Green Action based in Kyoto, Japan. As president of Aileen Archive she is committed to disseminating Gene’s and Aileen’s photographic work on Minamata. She is a recipient of the Nuclear-Free Future Award (2014).

Event Details: November 1  |  6 - 9 PM  |  Liberty Hall (644 Mass St.)

FREE | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

This event is being held in conjunction with a CEAS Global Asia Speaker Series talk by Aileen Smith on photojournalism and Eugene Smith's legacy at the Spencer Museum of Art, November 2, 2023 (6:00 pm).

This event is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to the University of Kansas Center for East Asian Studies and co-sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.