Sixty-four-year-old Ayano Tsukimi lives in Nagoro, a remote Japanese village far from any major city. When she was a child, the village was bustling, but Nagoro is nearly deserted now. Its residents have grown old and died, or moved on to bigger towns as the jobs disappeared. Tsukimi pays homage to her old friends and neighbours in a unique way: by repopulating the town with life-size dolls. Drawing upon childhood memories, Tsukimi spends months on her creations, trying to get the clothing, posture and facial expressions just right. In Valley of Dolls, the director Fritz Schumann tells the story of a remarkable response to death, dying and Japan’s rapidly ageing population.
Director: Fritz Schumann
videoDemography and migration
The volunteers who offer a last line of care for migrants at a contentious border
30 minutes
videoLife stages
Grief, healing and laughter coexist at a unique retreat for widows and widowers
15 minutes
videoArt
A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea
7 minutes
videoAnthropology
Margaret Mead explains why the family was entering a brave new world in this 1959 film
29 minutes
videoDemography and migration
In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope
17 minutes
videoAgeing and death
Memories of friends and neighbours light the streets of a seaside village in England
11 minutes
videoArchaeology
At a prehistoric pigment mine, researchers glimpse our earliest moments in the Americas
25 minutes
videoCognition and intelligence
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
4 minutes
videoAnthropology
For an Amazonian female shaman, ayahuasca ceremonies are a rite and a business
30 minutes