Writer, curator, and programmer whose work focuses on the cinema of Japan and other East Asian countries. Their writing has been published in Hyperallergic, MUBI Notebook, BFI, Sight & Sound, among other outlets. They have curated programmes for the Royal College of Art and Barbican Centre and currently work as Submissions Viewer at the Glasgow Short Film Festival.
Projects
- Bodies of Resistance // Ecologies of ChangeBodies of Resistance // Ecologies of Change is a collection structured around two poles, the personal and the environmental. In contemporary society, individuals are often bridled by societal expectations and suffocated by imposing political macrostructures. Personal expression is often coerced into silence until critical voices find their ways through acts of suppression. These dynamics are perfectly exemplified in the first part of the collection, where the filmmakers draw from personal experi
- The Political Provocations of a Maverick Japanese Documentarian“I was born in 1945, when democracy was introduced in postwar Japan, so my life has been kind of synchronized with its development in the country. Unfortunately, democracy is still not rooted in the minds of the majority of the people there, and until this changes, I’ll continue to make films.” That was how maverick documentarian Kazuo Hara summarized his career when presenting his newest film Reiwa Uprising at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. [published on Hyperallergic - https://hy
- THE SHAPES OF WATER IN THE FILMS OF MAKOTO SHINKAIIn Japanese literature, seasonal imagery has a fundamental, codified importance. In poetry, where syllables dictate the rhythm of a composition, specific words or phrases associated with seasons are aptly disseminated to convey precise emotions. For example, when the rainy season controls the meteorologic calendar, lightning and rain, are just a couple of the natural phenomena that are used to indicate that a poem talks about summer. That’s why, mimicking tanka (a genre of classical Japanese poe
- Geography of Absence: Exploring Places in Mia Hansen-Løve’s Father of My ChildrenIn the sensitive cinema of Mia Hansen-Løve, characters engage with their surroundings as much as each other. Focusing in on one family of girls grappling with grief, the director’s sophomore feature embraces this lifeline. Serena Scateni explores this relationship. [Published on Girls On Tops]
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