Jean-Gabriel Périot

Nijuman no Borei (200,000 Phantoms) (2007)

Jean-Gabriel Périot is an artist and filmmaker based in Tours, France. His work has been shown extensively around the world, winning numerous awards including the Grand Prix at the Tampere International Film Festival, USA and Best International Short at the Cork International Film Festival, Ireland.

In 1914, the Genbaku Dome in Hiroshima was a beacon of graceful urban life in Japan. On August 6 1945, the atomic bomb called ‘Little Boy’ detonated 500 feet away from the building, killing 78,000 people and leveling the city within a single second. But the dome miraculously survived. Nijuman no Borei (200000 fantomes / 200000 phantoms), charts the 20th century history of the town through 600 photographs of the Genbaku Dome. We witness life fade in and out, the dome still standing today as a silent reminder of the horrors of nuclear war.

Nijuman no Borei (200,000 Phantoms), a work about Hiroshima, 1914 - 2006, has won Périot international critical acclaim. Amongst others it has picked up the Grand Prix at the Japan Media Art Festival in Tokyo, the Grand Prix at KIVF Kansk, 1st prize and audience prize at Videologia Volgograd, and the Animate award at Encounters Bristol.


_{Image: Nijuman no Borei (still) © Jean-Gabriel Périot}