Kimi Takesue

Kimi Takesue is the recipient of a 2005 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Filmmaking, as well as a 2005 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Film. Her award-winning films E=nyc2 (2005), SUMMER OF THE SERPENT (2004), HEAVENıS CROSSROAD (2002), ROSEWATER (1999) and BOUND (1995) have been televised in the U.S. and have screened at over 200 film festivals and museums, including the Rotterdam International Film Festival, Locarno International, Vancouver International, Tampere International, Londonıs Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Walker Art Center.

Takesue has been awarded fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Yaddo, and the MacDowell Colony. Her films have received numerous honors including the SPIRIT OF SLAMDANCE AWARD, Slamdance Film Festival; GRAND JURY PRIZE, Brooklyn International Film Festival; JURORSı CHOICE AWARD, Black Maria Film & Video Festival; BEST DOCUMENTARY, Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema; GOLD MEDAL & GRAND JURY PRIZE, Brno International Film Festival, Czech Republic; and the GOLDEN REEL: NEW VISIONS AWARD, Los Angeles Asian International.

The New York State Council on the Arts, the Arts Council of England, WNET-13, WYBE-35, the Philadelphia Foundation, and the National Asian American Telecommunications Association are among organizations that have funded her work.

Takesue has been a visiting filmmaker at Yale University, Clark University, University of Texas-San Antonio, UC Irvine, University of Massachusetts, Old Dominion University, and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, among others.

Raised in Hawaii and Massachusetts, Takesue received her B.A. from Oberlin College in Cultural Studies and her M.F.A. in Media Arts from Temple University. She was the recipient of the 2000 Eastman Kodak National Scholarship in Cinematography. Takesue is currently developing a feature-length film project with Vox3 Films in New York City. (09/05)

Heaven’s Crossroad
A film by Kimi Takesue, 2002, 35 min., Color
HEAVEN'S CROSSROAD traces an impressionistic journey through Vietnam exploring the nuances and complexities of “looking” cross-culturally. Structured ...

Summer of the Serpent
A film by Kimi Takesue, 2004, 27 min., Color
This beautiful short drama exquisitely explores the unlikely bond that develops between two people from different worlds. Eight-year old Juliette sits...