U3A Cinema Group to show Minamata

Minamata will screen at the Embassy at 10:30am Wednesday 25 August. Photo / Bevan Conley

In the mid-1950s the lethal effects of the toxic wastewater dumped into Minamata Bay first became noticeable with the death of fish.

That was followed by the strange behaviour of cats, and in 1956 the disabling effects of methyl mercury poison on the human population.

Despite conclusive evidence that the poison originated from the Chisso industrial chemical factory, the causative processes were not discontinued until 1968.

More than 75,000 people suffered from Minamata poisoning.

Minamata is a documentary type film telling of this catastrophe, but with a parallel story of a down-and-out journalist rediscovering his calling.

Johnny Depp takes the lead as Eugene Smith the renowned photo-journalist who travelled to Japan for Life magazine in 1971 to expose the enormity of the tragedy.

The film has been panned by numerous critics as melodramatic, poorly executed, lacking emotional coherence, causing compassion fatigue etc.

Depp's presentation is damned by some but lauded by others, some even claiming this to be Depp's best work in years.

"Minamata is a passionate and thoroughly objective work … that shows how Smith's determination to expose Chisso's crimes and the corporation's victims, reinvigorated his creative spirit." (Jason Quill, Richard Phillips.)

I have no doubt the film will be emotionally draining, but it raises the question as to what the U3A Cinema Group is about.

U3A is about lifelong learning and the films that are screened will hopefully make intellectual, emotional, aesthetic demands of viewers.

Come and make your own judgment as to the value of this film.

Graeme Tuckett concludes his review, "Minamata is a heart-felt and impassioned film.

"While it might lack nuance and subtlety, that's hardly a criticism when the subject matter is this urgent and still relevant."

Minamata will screen at the Embassy at 10.30am Wednesday August 25.

All welcome. Wheelchair access. Bring a friend.