CREATIVE TEAM

KIMI TAKESUE

Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor

Kimi Takesue is an acclaimed filmmaker working in documentary, experimental and narrative genres. She is the recipient of Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships, as well as a highly competitive 2018 “Breakthrough Award” and fellowship from Chicken and Egg Pictures. Other honors include two fellowships from the New York Foundation of the Arts, a Kodak Cinematography Fellowship, and grants from ITVS, Catapult Films, NYSCA, and the Arts Council of England. She is a ten-time artist fellow at Yaddo, Bogliasco, Wexner Center for the Arts, Marblehouse, and the MacDowell Colony.

Her ten films have screened at more than 250 film festivals and museums internationally including Sundance, Locarno, New Directors/ New Films (MoMA & Lincoln Center), Rotterdam, SXSW, Mar del Plata, Vancouver, London’s ICA, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Museum of Modern Art-New York City and have aired on PBS, IFC, Comcast, and the Sundance Channel.

Takesue’s feature documentary, 95 AND 6 TO GO, a creative portrait of her Japanese-American grandfather in Hawai’i, was nominated for the prestigious 2017 European Doc Alliance Award and screened at over twenty-five international film festivals, including CPH:DOX, DOC NYC, and Dok Leipzig. The film won the Special Jury Prize for Best Documentary Film at Indie Memphis and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific International Film Festival.

Takesue’s critically acclaimed Ugandan feature-length documentary, WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME?, was commissioned by the International Film Festival Rotterdam and premiered at the festival, followed by screenings at the Museum of Modern Art –New York City, the Los Angeles Film Festival, and festivals in Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Uganda, Poland, Portugal and India, among others. “Where Are You Taking Me?” was theatrically released by Icarus Films, was a Critics’ Pick by Time Out-New York and LA Weekly and was described by the New York Times as, “Fascinating...an unusual, visually rich visit to the nation.”

Film honors include Spirit of Slamdance Award, Slamdance Film Festival; Best Short Documentary, Philadelphia Fest. of World Cinema; ITVS Futurestates Audience Award; Grand Jury Prize, Brooklyn International Film Festival; Gold Medal & Grand Jury Prize, Brno International Film Festival, Czech Republic; Jurors’ Choice Award (1st place), Black Maria Film and Video Festival; Best Narrative Short, San Diego Asian Film Festival; and Golden Reel:New Visions Award, Los Angeles Asian Pacific International Film Festival.

Takesue has served as a selection committee member for MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight as well as a nominator for the Rockefeller Media Arts Award. She has served as a panelist for the New York Foundation for the Arts, Pew Interdisciplinary Arts Fellowships and a juror for the International Documentary Association (IDA) Awards, DOC NYC, and BAFICI-Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema. Her films have received positive reviews in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Nation, Variety, The Village Voice, Bomb Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor,and The Wall Street Journal, among others. Takesue's films are distributed by New Day Films, Women Make Movies, and the British Film Institute. She is Professor in the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media at Rutgers University-Newark.

RICHARD BEENEN

Co-Producer

Richard Beenen is a New York based artist, photographer, and educator with teaching experience at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, and at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC. His fine art work has been exhibited at numerous galleries and museums including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, White Columns/ NYC, and Museo D'Arte Contemporanea Roma. Richard has received artist fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pollack Krasner Foundation, and the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation. Recent projects include creating video pieces that have screened internationally at film festivals and museums, including Viper Basel: International Festival for Film & Video, Switzerland, Les Recontres Audiovisuelles, Lille, France, and the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

Beenen has also been a co-producer on numerous award winning films including 95 AND 6 TO GO, LOOKING FOR ADVENTURE, SUMMER OF THE SERPENT, E=NYC2, and SUSPENDED which have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Rotterdam, Locarno CPH:DOX, DOC NYC and the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

ALEX SU

Marketing and Distribution Assistant

Alex Su is a recent graduate from the Rutgers University - Newark Business School and School of Arts, Culture, and Media. With a minor in Video Production, Alex is very enthusiastic in pushing narratives that embrace positive representation. His first short film, TABWOODS, produced at Rutgers Newark as well as under the advisement of Kimi Takesue was an official selection of the Newark International Film Festival.