Nikkei
Spanish and Japanese with English subtitles
Director/Screenwriter: Kaori Flores Yonekura Producers: Kaori Flores Yonekura, Hugo Shinki Higa Cinematographers: Kaori Flores Yonekura, Angel Marique, Mohamed Hussain Editors: Eyeletmy Rodríguez, Kaori Flores Yonekura Music: Alejandro Rosso Sound Design: Daniel Zahalka Art: Ztuyoshi Flores Yonekura, Kaori Flores Yonekura Animation: Jean-Charles L'Ami, 35 Quai du Soleil
The search for identity. Cultures crossing continents. In Nikkei, director Kaori Flores Yonekura tells the story of her grandparents’ intrepid journey from Japan to Peru to Venezuela. Along the way, their personal search for a new home is set against the larger backdrop of the history of Japanese immigration to Latin America: from servitude in Peru, to the anti-Japanese media campaigns in World War II, to propaganda and promises of a better life in Venezuela. Nikkei is a fascinating and artfully constructed documentary that uses photographs, animation and personal testimony to reconstruct a subject of Latin American history that is rarely presented in cinema. Director Kaori Flores will be in attendance to have a dialogue with the audience.
Kaori Flores Yonekura...uses the search for her own personal history as a pretext to introduce us to a complex theme of identity, integration and recognition of what it means “to be” Latin American.
Elizabeth Lino Cornejo
Nikkei es el relato de la búsqueda de una identidad cultural cruzando continentes. La directora Kaori Flores Yonekura narra la historia de sus abuelos quienes hicieron el audaz viaje de Japón a Perú, llegando hasta Venezuela; un viaje que también nos transporta al contexto general de la inmigración asiática hacia América Latina, pasando por la esclavitud en los campos peruanos y las campañas mediáticas antijaponesas durante la Segunda Guerra mundial. Nikkei es un retrato fascinante, que utiliza animación y fotografía, para documentar este testimonio personal que reconstruye un tema escasamente representado en el cine latinoamericano actual. La directora Kaori Flores estará en la sala para tener un diálogo con la audiencia.
Kaori Flores Yonekura was born in Mérida, Venezuela in 1976. She graduated with a specialization in film production from EICTV, and is the founder of the Cinescope: Iberoamerican Film Forum. Nikkei, her first feature, was nominated for Best Documentary at numerous international festivals and won the Signis Prize at the Venezuela Film Festival.