The Narcissus Flowers of Katsura-Shima

A year after Japan’s major earthquake and tsunami, art about the event is beginning to emerge. The Narcissus Flowers of Katsura-shima, a documentary by American film artist Jon Jost, takes an oblique, even elegiac approach. Combining shots of Japanese island landscapes, Japanese poetry, and interviews with island residents who lived near the quake’s epicenter, “The Narcissus Flowers of Katsura-shima” is as much a portrait of a place as it is of the people who make their home there. With this moving film, Jost has given us a window into their experiences from an unexpected and compelling angle.