Synopsis: In Japanese, there is a special word for an unborn life. Mizuko, which means “water child,” is used to refer to both miscarried and aborted pregnancies. In addition to this word, there's a Buddhist ritual for grief called "mizuko kuyo" that allows women to metaphorically return their water children to the sea. Told through the Japanese American filmmaker’s personal story of abortion in the United States, MIZUKO is a partially animated, intimate reckoning with the impact of this cultural context.

Directors' Bios: Kira Dane is a half-Japanese filmmaker from New York, currently based in Japan. Having been shaped and informed by two extremely different cultures, she is most comfortable in gray areas. As an artist, she's most interested in telling stories that dig for nuance. With a background in illustration, she often utilizes animation and experimental form in her work. Kira was a 2019 fellow of the Sundance Ignite Program.

Katelyn Rebelo is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn. Her work sits at the intersection of documentary and experimental film, often exploring stories that reimagine concepts of femininity, politics, and personal freedom. She is currently the Spring 2020 Woman Filmmaker Fellow at Jacob Burns Film Center, and holds a BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a major in Film and Television and minor in Social and Cultural Analysis.