Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2012

Everyone looks forward to going home for the holidays. But what if your hometown has been rocked by a devastating natural disaster since you were last there? That was the painful situation faced by Tokyo-based filmmaker Hiroki Iwabuchi when he went back to Sendai for Christmas last year.

“I was introduced to Christmas by my great aunt, who is Christian,” the director says, “and I continued to get gifts ‘from Santa’ until I was 22! What is important in Sendai is the celebration of light.” The capital of Miyagi Prefecture is known for its annual Christmas lights and parade. But would the show go on following the damage of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, not to mention electricity shortages due to the Fukushima nuclear accident?

Iwabuchi gravitated toward nonfiction filmmaking when going to university in Yamagata, home to Japan’s biggest documentary film festival. So when he went home for the holidays, he brought a camera along. The result is Chasing Santa Claus, a documentary that is a dual portrait, of both a family and the residents of a whole city—many of whom were still in temporary housing—banding together to overcome setbacks and celebrate their city.

Chasing Santa Claus is screening at Shibuya’s Eurospace (1-5 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku; www.eurospace.co.jp) from December 8, with several Q&A and music events scheduled during its run. http://chasing-santa.com