"Gently pressing out the creases on a blouse long folded up, I bring it into the light of the sun shining through a window. For an instant, the polka dots and floral patterns shimmer and the woman who once wore it rises…"—Ishiuchi Miyako

Last year, Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology hosted one of the first major art exhibitions devoted to the atomic bomb, "hiroshima" by photographer Ishisuchi Miyako, which consisted of 48 large-format colour prints of clothing once worn by those who’d been killed by the blast at Hiroshima. Taken out of permanent storage at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial archive, the items still retained their vibrant colours…

Linda Hoaglund’s ANPO: Art X War (VIFF 10) examined engaged artists’ responses to the fact that, thanks to the "American-Japanese Joint Security Pact," there were still 90 American military bases on Japanese soil. Here she distills her vision to the work of one artist. Things Left Behind weaves the 48 exhibited photographs, Ishiuchi’s singularly intuitive creative process and her images’ impact on visitors into a cinematic reverie about art’s potential to access and recast historical memory. The film forces us to re-imagine our collective perception of Hiroshima, too long a prisoner of terrifying archival footage and black and white photographs. Through Ishiuchi—and Hoaglund—the past is brought into the present and the lasting impact of the atomic bomb is made poetically tangible.