Seiichi Motohashi's documentaries often take environmental destruction as their theme, starting with his first, "Nadja no Mura" ("Nadja's Village"), in 1998 and continuing with "Alexei to Izumi" ("Alexei's Spring," 2002) and his new film "Baobab no Kioku" ("A Thousand Year Song of Baobab").
The first two films depict villagers living near the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, despite the dangerous levels of radiation. The latest focuses on rural Africans still living in close, traditional connection with nature, while their urban cousins pursue environmentally destructive development.
Motohashi is more interested in celebrating his subjects' lives than in attacking the forces, corporate and governmental, bent on ruining them. This may sound soft, like writing fluffy "human interest" stories in a war zone, but Motohashi visited the Chernobyl area repeatedly for years, winning the trust of the villagers, while discreetly recording the arc of their lives, from public celebrations to intimate crises. He captured a reality that the hundreds of foreign reporters, chasing deadlines or pursuing an agenda, missed or ignored.