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Kaori Oda

Kaori Oda

Directing

Biography

Kaori Oda, born in Osaka, Japan in 1987, is a filmmaker and artist. In 2016, she completed a Doctor of Liberal Arts in filmmaking in Sarajevo, supervised by Béla Tarr. Aragane (2015), shot in a Bosnian coal mine, premiered at Yamagata International Film Festival. Toward a Common Tenderness (2017) had its world premiere at DOK Leipzig and TS’ONOT / Cenote (2019), shot in underwater caves in Yucatán, premiered in Rotterdam. GAMA (2023) screened at MoMA Doc Fortnight and Cinéma du Réel. Oda received the Nagisa Oshima Prize in 2020 and the New Face Award of the Japanese Education Minister in 2021.

Known For

In Their Traces

Sexual abuse has been characterized as a “murder of the spirit.” But is this a suffering that one person must bear alone? Beyond despair, there is hope, a faint ray of light from the spirit. A friend of the filmmaker suffers from PTSD, having flashbacks of sexual abuse. Having witnessed this, the filmmaker meets a photographer who is also a survivor and decides to make a film. The long production process lasted eight years. What is the nature of the despair, and the hope, that reside deep within these people suffering from PTSD conditions including regret, murderous impulses, depression, insomnia, detachment, and suicidal thoughts? The director appears on screen, questioning the very meaning of making this film. He tries to see light in how they live, looking upward from the depths of suffering.

In Their Traces

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