A Vow From the Ruins A Vow From the Ruins is an intimate portrait of Setsuko Thurlow, a passionate, 85-year-old survivor of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Her moving story is told through the lens of her growing friendship with a second generation survivor, Mitchie Takeuchi.
Setsuko was miraculously pulled out of a fiery building after the bomb was dropped and unable to save her other 27 classmates who were burned to death alive. That experience shaped her life forever and she endeavored to keep a pledge she made to her friends - that no one should ever again experience the same horrible fate.
The film follows Setsuko though her decades of activism up to the current moment when she finally achieves her dream of a Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty.
The Crew
Mitchie
Takeuchi
Creator and Senior Producer
Mitchie Takeuchi, Creator and Producer of "A Vow from the Ruins", is originally from Hiroshima and now lives in New York City. By day, she is a media business consultant. She is also a Fellow of Youth Arts New York /Hibakusha Stories, a UN NGO, and a member organization of ICAN, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. With ICAN Director Beatrice Fihn, Setsuko delivered the Lecture and accepted the award on behalf of the organization. It is Mitchie’s relationship with Setsuko that inspired this project.
Mitchie’s grandfather, Dr. Ken Takeuchi, the founding president of the Red Cross Hospital in Hiroshima, and her mother, Takako, both survived the A-Bomb on August 6, which makes Mitchie a 2nd generation survivor. As a teenager, she volunteered to assist Leona Row, the director at the World Friendship Center and together they created a group project to translate the anti-nuclear classic Unforgettable Fire: Drawings by Atomic Bomb Survivors that was published by NHK in 1977.1945
Susan
Strickler
Director and Producer
Susan Strickler, Director and Producer of "A Vow from the Ruins", has been a successful director and producer of network soap operas. Directing over 750 hour-long episodes for shows like The Young and the Restless, Guiding Light and Another World during her 22-year career, she has won both the Daytime Emmy Award and the Director’s Guild of America Award. As a Quaker and a feminist, Susan is passionate about bringing Setsuko’s inspiring story to as many people as possible.
Phyllis Famiglietti
Editor
Phyllis Famiglietti, Editor of "A Vow From The Ruins", started her editing career as a news and documentary editor at NBC, working on news shows such as Prime Time Live, The Today Show, Nightly News and Overnight with Linda Ellerbee. After 10 years there, she opened Figments Editorial, where she has edited videos for such clients as AMFAR, Girls Inc, and UJA, as well as Vanity Fair, T Magazine, and Barney’s . She's also edited numerous music videos, including The Pet Shop Boys "Being Boring", which won Music Week's "Best Video of the Year". She edited 666, which won the Silver Lone Star Award for best dramatic short at the Houston International Film Festival; the highly acclaimed feature documentary Broken Noses, for director/photographer Bruce Weber, as well as his short film, Gentle Giants, both of which screened at Sundance.