Hokkaido Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd.
Ministry of the Environment approves “recommendation” for documentary film produced by HTB Hokkaido Television
It’s been 17 years since I worked on a movie.
……
HTB’s 55th anniversary commemorative film “Miracle Child Dances in Yumeno”, which will be released in January next year, has recently been approved as a “recommendation” by the Ministry of the Environment. This is the first time in 17 years that the Ministry of the Environment has issued a recommendation for a film.
[Image 1
HTB’s 55th anniversary movie “Miracle Child Dances in Yumeno” will be released! (C)HTB All rights reserved 2024
[Video 2: “Miracle Child Dancing in Yumeno” is a project in which 14 farmers in Naganuma Town, Hokkaido, started an activity to invite red-crowned cranes to the area and restored wetlands and ecosystems in the area. This is a documentary film that records the seven years it took to become like this.
In the movie, the farmers are working on farming methods that reduce pesticides to create fields where the organisms that feed the cranes can grow, and they are patrolling the surrounding areas to prevent humans from approaching the red-crowned cranes. We introduced the various problems and efforts we had to make. This is said to be the first time in the world that red-crowned cranes have been able to live and breed in an artificially constructed facility (reservation area) in an area where red-crowned cranes do not inhabit.
Currently, about 1,800 red-crowned cranes live in eastern Hokkaido, and they are a national natural monument. They are fed during the winter when food is not available, but the spread of avian influenza raises concerns about the spread of infection at serving stations. For this reason, the Ministry of the Environment is planning to disperse the crane habitat. The efforts of farmers in Naganuma Town are an effort to restore rich nature and create a new habitat in the central Hokkaido area, where it had previously been absent, and are in line with the direction of the Ministry of the Environment. Through seven years of reporting, HTB collaborated with the national government, which manages the retarding basin, and the local Naganuma town, and photographed red-crowned cranes under the guidance of researchers. In addition to taking photos from cars during times when the cranes are nervous, such as when they are incubating eggs or having chicks, other measures were taken, such as refraining from broadcasting news on TV until the chicks were able to fly, so as not to be flooded with photographers. I took it. In particular, when it came to drone photography, I accompanied the researchers, checked the footage on a monitor together, and received instructions. This interview style, which does not surprise or threaten the cranes, led to this
recommendation.
[Comment from Director Hiromitsu Numata]
We are very honored to have been recognized in the form of a “recommendation” for the steady efforts of local communities and the efforts of local stations that continue to record and convey them through video. I think the miraculous story that happened in Naganuma Town can serve as a reference for any town in Japan. I hope that this will be an opportunity for many people to see the work and think about what they can do for the local nature.
In addition, this work was selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in October 2025 as “It is deemed to have high educational value and is appropriate for wide use in school education and social education” (for boys and young people). Direction: For adults only).
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Plants are starting to grow in the Maizuru water basin, making it look like a wetland. In 2020, an egg was finally formed at the feet of the red-crowned crane couple (C)HTB All rights reserved 2024
[Image 3
“Association to bring back red-crowned cranes to Maizuru water park” Chairman Koichi Kato (C) HTB All rights reserved 2024
title
The miracle child dances in Yumeno (Kisekinoko Yumeno Nimau) Release
Screening at Sapporo Theater Kino and other movie theaters in Hokkaido from Saturday, January 20, 2024
*Some previews will be released on January 19th (Friday) at Cinema Taiyo Obihiro/Hakodate and T Joy Wakkanai
Screening at Marunouchi TOEI, Tokyo from February 23, 2024 (Friday/Holiday) Narration
Mone Kamishiraishi
Synopsis
Farmers are struggling with birds. They pick up the seeds they sow, and when they sprout, they eat them up as if they had been cut with clippers. The newly erected greenhouse is covered with droppings. These farmers decided to invite birds to their hometown. It is also an endangered species, the red-crowned crane. There is no way that a rare species that only lives in eastern Hokkaido would come to a farming village near the metropolis of Sapporo. Still, 14 farmers gathered together and began building a habitat for the red-crowned cranes. When the “wetlands” where red-crowned cranes can live in artificially created water retarding areas are restored, unexpected visitors arrive. A large number of migratory birds, ferocious alien species, and people with cameras… Troubles occur one after another. Will the cranes really come?
Official website
https://www.htb.co.jp/kisekinoko
staff
Director: Hiromitsu Numata
General producer: Hideki Sakamoto
Producer: Yasumasa Shinomiya Katsunori Horie
Photography: Yasunori Koyama, Yuyuki Ishida
Editing: Yuki Ueda
Music: Yukiyo Nakamura
Music production: Masahiro Nakawaki
Advertising producer: Yutaka Izumiya
Production/Distribution: Hokkaido Television Broadcasting
Promotion/distribution cooperation: Toei Agency
Color / 5.1ch / 16:9 / 1 hour 37 minutes
・Selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in FY2020 as “Suitable for boys”, “Suitable for young people”, “Suitable for adults”
・Ministry of the Environment “Recommendation”
・Agency for Cultural Affairs Cultural Arts Promotion Subsidy (Film Creation Activities Support Project)
・Sapporo City Video Production Subsidy
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During the Edo period, red-crowned cranes also lived on Honshu. If the red-crowned cranes remain in central Hokkaido, they may eventually migrate to Honshu…(C)HTB All rights reserved 2024
[Image 5
“An association to bring back red-crowned cranes to the Maizuru Wetland” was started by 14 farmers living in Naganuma Town, Hokkaido (C)HTB All rights reserved 2024