Born in Kameoka, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, Aya Domenig has joint Swiss and Japanese citizenship. Her mother is of Japanese origin, Domenig's father is Swiss, and her grandfather, Shigeru Doi, worked at the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. In 1976 Domenig's parents moved to Switzerland, where they lived in Kilchberg and in Zürich-Hottingen. She attended a gymnasium in Zürich, and from 1992 to 2000 she studied Social Anthropology, Film Studies and Japanology at the University of Zurich. Earning an Monbushô scholarship by the Government of Japan, in 1996/97 Aya Domenig attended the Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. Aya Domenig's practical experiences include language stays in France and Japan at the Sendagaya Japanese Institute, she made two internships and also worked as translator. Domenig graduated in Visual Anthropology in 2000, and in 2001 Domenig attended the film and video department at the ZHdK University Zürich where she graduated in 2005, producing the short fiction film Haru Ichiban in co-operation with the Osaka University of Arts and Visual Media.
Work
Aya Domenig published a social study treating the relevance of the Swiss novel Heidi in 2001, and in 2007 she participated a study related to the funeral culture on behalf of the government of the city of Zürich. Aya Domenig's first documentary film was Oyakata - The Master, her graduation work in 1999, which was presented in 2000 and 2001 at film festivals in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, in the UK and USA. Her 2015 documentary film Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel was supported by the Swiss film subsidy of the Canton of Zürich for research and production, and produced by ican films gmbh and Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen. Since I was a teenager, I always wanted to know more about the background of my grandfather. Aya Domenig tells in her first feature film the fate of her grandfather who worked as doctor after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 in a Red Cross hospital in Hiroshima. While researching her film in the Hiroshima Prefecture, on 11 March 2011 the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster occurred, and Domenig decided to expand her project. The documentary film premiered at the Festival del film Locarno on 9 August 2015.
2016: Tokyo, Green Image Film Festival, Green Image Award for Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel.
2016: Schwerin, Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Special Mention for Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel.
2016: Paris, Festival International Jean Rouch, Prix Mario Ruspoli for Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel.
2016: Paris, Festival International Jean Rouch, Prix Anthropologie et Developement Durable for Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel.
2016: Gilching, Fünf Seen Filmfestival, Horizonte Filmpreis for Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel.
2016: Bozen, Bozner Filmtage, Lobende Erwähnung for Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel.
2016: Bozcaada, Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary, Fethi Kayaalp Grand Prize - 2nd Prize for Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel.
Publications
Aya Domenig: „Cute Heidi“. Zur Rezeption von Heidi in Japan. In: Heidi. Karrieren einer Figur. Offizin, Zürich 2001,.
Literature
Ins Landesinnere und darüber hinaus. Perspektiven des Schweizer Dokumentarfilms – 14 Porträts. Published by Schweizer Feuilletondienst. Limmat Verlag, Zürich 2014,.
