Ashima

When he met Ashima Shiraishi in 2021, filmmaker Kenji Tsukamoto realised just how much he could have used a role model like her during his childhood as a Japanese immigrant in the United States. He decided to film her over the course of a year, as she attempted to become the youngest person to complete one of the world's most difficult climbs in South Africa. Yet the ascent would not be her only battle. She would also have to find her place in this competitive world dominated by white men, overcome her extreme shyness, manage both celebrity and solitude, the peaks and the sometimes painful falls. And, above all, manage the expectations of her coach father, a former dancer, finding the tenderness in his firmness and living up to the sacrifices that immigrant parents must sometimes make for their children. Growing up, living life between two cultures, the obsession with success and the pursuit of the American dream.

Anne Delseth

Ashima, 2023
Beehive Stories: Millard County, 2011