Ama, de mer en fille (2015)

• 65%
• 2015

On every fishing outing with her grandmother, Aoi wonders if she will have the strength to carry on". The weather is ideal for shell fishing in the shark-infested waters of the Japanese Sea of Hegura Island. Yet Aoi, 21, still a novice is nervous to dive in front of her more experienced grandmother. Machiko, 82, is a traditional Ama free diver, meaning "woman of the sea." She is one of the last custodians of a 2 000 years old know-how, one of harvesting abalone and the other precious shells that once had a place of honour at the emperors' tisch.The Ama tradition is passed down from mother to daughter but for several generations now the ice-cold waters, the scarcity of seashells and the mortal danger that represent both sharks and other fishing boats have discouraged the younger generation who is migrating to japan ' s large cities.