Ama Girls

This short (winner of Documentary Short at the Academy awards for 1958) focused on a Japanese village and a fishing method used as a livlihood in Japan. Disney had a series of shorts focusing in on other places and cultures and this is one of the better ones. Most of them were less than thirty minutes long and were cinematically beautiful to watch. They run very sporadically, when they run at all, on the Disney Channel's Vault Disney. *sigh* Disney is sitting on a treasure trove! Recommended.

This isn't really about the "Ama" girls, more a review of a Japanese maritime community in the 1950s. With a slightly sarcastic and borderline condescending commentary from Winston Hibler, we spend a day with the villagers whose lives have hardly changed in centuries. The employ a myriad of techniques - some quite innovative - as they plunder the sea and the beach for anything edible or sellable to a nation that values freshness over everything. We do see a little of these renowned ladies. They dive deep into the rocky crevices in the chilly waters looking for rare seaweed or maybe the odd pearl. The arrival of the sardine boat means it's all hands to the pump to get this huge, but never sufficient, cargo unloaded and despatched to market and by the end of the day, everyone is in need of a rest and a good - if really quite sparing - meal. This is an ancient and proud culture that mucks in together to ensure that everyone is taken care of - they even have a stock of fresh fish kept alive in a basket in a pond for emergencies, and their flat-bottomed boats and intricate fishing contraptions are quite remarkably inventive.

A Walt Disney PEOPLE AND PLACES short subject.

This short film takes us for a fascinating look at a day in the life of a Japanese fishing village. We see how the lives of everyone is concerned in some way with the sea and harvesting its bounty. Special focus is given to the AMA GIRLS, those healthy young maidens who dive up to 60 feet beneath the waves in search of choice sea weed to sell. Scenes of domestic life are also shown, as well as how the entire village works together to process the valuable sardine catch.

`This film is one in a series presenting interesting PEOPLE and the PLACES in which they live. All scenes are authentic and the stories are factual.' The narrator is Winston Hibler.