Shawnetta - short documentary film for PEACE

Shawnetta (and a Love Affair with Nagasaki) is an intimate documentary following a young American woman who has made Nagasaki, Japan, her home. Originally from Green Bay, Wisconsin, Shawnetta arrived six years ago and, through marriage, language, and daily life, has deeply embraced Japanese culture. Fluent in Japanese, she moves easily between worlds—past and present, American and Japanese, personal memory and collective history.

Shawnetta worked at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, where she encountered visitors seeking to understand the devastation of the 1945 bombing. She shares stories of loss, resilience, and remembrance, while reflecting on her own evolving understanding of peace. Shawnetta is also a tour guide, immersing herself in Nagasaki’s layered history—from its period of isolation to its role as Japan’s gateway to the world. This history mirrors her personal journey, revealing a city shaped by exchange, suffering, survival, and reconciliation. Her position is unique: a foreigner interpreting one of Japan’s most profound national traumas, and a cultural bridge in a space devoted to global reflection.

Though anchored in Shawnetta’s life, the film’s true focus is peace—not as an abstract ideal, but as a lived responsibility. Through quiet moments, daily routines, and candid conversations, Shawnetta asks a simple yet profound question: how does peace begin? Its guiding idea, “Peace begins with me,” emerges as a gentle call to empathy, learning, and conscious choice.