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The Cherry Tree with Gray Blossoms is a short and poetic documentary, a sort of visual poem that was completed in 1977, but a project Haneda pursued and had in mind for a long time. Shot in a small valley in Gifu prefecture, the movie is a reflection on the mortality and ephemerality of all things disguised as a documentary about a 1300-year-old cherry tree. Haneda and her cameraman follow the seasonal changes in and around this ancient tree, the festivals, the life of the small communities in the surrounding areas, the Spring and the coming of the inevitable Winter. The Cherry Tree with Gray Blossoms is also a grieving process for her sister’s death, a personal way for Haneda to deal with the devastating pain of losing her own sister, symbolically represented on screen by a girl who appears several times like a phantasmic presence, mostly at the beginning and at the end of the movie.
