PRESS

"The Best Documentaries of 2024, So Far" - The New York Times

“I also loved “Onlookers,” Kimi Takesue’s unusual film about tourism in Laos. You can imagine a journalistic approach to this topic, which might involve interviews and investigative work, or perhaps a first-person travelogue approach. But Takesue eschews all those tools for something entirely different: a series of long takes, set up as locked, wide camera shots. Tourists and locals amble through the frame, taking pictures, talking to one another, buying items and going about the activities typical of tourism in the region. What you slowly realize you’re watching is the way that constant observation creates a certain sort of performance as well as disruption. Tourists are there to look at locals, and locals look right back at them, watching their behavior as well. But there’s an extra layer, because here we are as viewers, watching people be watched. So who is the real onlooker?”

-Alissa Wilkinson, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Immersive, beguiling, and productively unsettling...Takesue acknowledges the voyeurism inherent to being human, while also acknowledging its ethical consequences — whether we are physically traveling to foreign locales or sitting in a cinema...the film is an exercise in the power of watching and listening."

-Ellen G'Sell, HYPERALLERGIC

“Revelatory ... Onlookers presents the viewer with a series of modular, fixed-frame images of both locals and tourists in Laos. With exacting compositions, Takesue observes tourists as they seek the physical artifacts of Buddhism—temples, statues, monks at work—lured by the promise of Eastern exoticism...Onlookers provides a piercing and ironic examination of seemingly benevolent cultural consumption.”

-Michael Sicinski, FILM COMMENT

“Visually stunning!…The filmmaker uses the beauty of Laos and its people to showcase just how tourism can have an effect on a country and its local people… disruption and tourism cross paths.”

-Charles Barfield, THE PLAYLIST

"Mesmerizes...A cross between a travelogue and a tone poem, director Kimi Takesue’s Onlookers takes the viewer on a journey through Laos, her camera capturing evocative images of a country that sits comfortably betwixt tradition and modernity... It’s people-watching, but with a twist: they could just as easily swap places with us, extending the conceit and turning our mundane lives into spectacle, too. Reality is endlessly cinematic."

-Christopher Llewellyn Reed, FILM FESTIVAL TODAY

“Compelling! ...Through a series of consistent wide shots, the camera never moving, to a sound tableau that picks up the most subtle touristic rustling…Onlookers not only grabs your gaze almost subconsciously, but it also elicits nostalgia and self-reflection of one’s own such experiences.”

-Steve Rickinson, MODERN TIMES REVIEW

"Kimi Takesue’s films are ones that reward the patient viewer...With 'Onlookers,' Kimi Takesue lays bare the performative nature of tourism, in all its graceless glory...The result is a series of slow-moving tableaus that sit with the tensions of negotiating space in a world increasingly defined by consumption."

-Dessane Lopez Cassell, SEEN MAGAZINE

“Who are these "onlookers" if not at the same time them, her and us, filmmaker and spectators, villagers and travellers? ...Faced with the ravages of tourism and the persistent colonial mentalities, it is easy to forget this register where the gaze suspends prejudices and establishes a level of equivalences; a group-based approach able to question the way in which roles are constructed, and where the work of filmmaking merges with the exercise of hospitality.”

-Antoine Thirion, CINEMA DU REEL, Centre Pompidou

“Ravishing....There’s a strong hint of the theater to the director’s machinations and, with that, a sharp eye for composition and choreography....At moments, one is reminded of the expansive organizational facility of Pieter Brueghel.”

-Mario Naves- THE NEW YORK SUN

"A poetically fluid, magnetic visual statement that raises questions about the meanings of travel and the nature of tourism...Through Takesue’s lens, the narrative evolves into more than a travelogue; it becomes a profound exploration of the transformative power of embracing the unfamiliar and finding beauty in the ordinary, wherever one may be.”

-Mako Fukata, CINEMA DAILY

“Kimi Takesue’s Onlookers, despite its placid veneer and languid pace amid the sightseeing landmarks of Laos, is loaded with the tension borne of ocular entanglement between subjects in their daily environments, tourists ogling per their mandate, Takesue’s own camera and subject position as traveler, and our apparently fixed positionality as witnesses to the scenes she captures. The result is as complex and open ended as the social co-existence it reveals. Through a series of expertly framed static takes (and meticulous sound design), we’re free to let our senses wander between the sometimes humorous, sometimes off putting, and always porous borders between seen and seer— and might just take pause to consider who could be observing us as we do.”

-Inney Prakash, PRISMATIC GROUND, Brooklyn Academy of Music

“A surprisingly funny observational documentary feature…is all about these times when eyes meet each other, or a lens, and that recognition causes one party to fall in or out of balance...But [Takesue’s] not merely reversing too-common gazes or commenting on tourism’s cannibalization of a place…Onlookers is instead the pithy result of her long look at a place and its tourism from untrodden angles. She is able to look at travel critically as well as see its potential.”

-A.E. Hunt, FILMMAKER MAGAZINE

"Sublime...Takesue's documentary is an excursion that reveals surprises at every checkpoint." 

                -Ari-Duong Nguyen, METROGRAPH JOURNAL

“If you’re looking for a new kind of travel film, this is for you.”

-Benjamin Franz, FILM THREAT

"Steady compositions invoke the theatrical stage by establishing fixed dimensions within which people and objects interact with the audience in direct and spontaneous ways... tonal shifts create an emotional rhythm throughout Onlookers, forcing the viewer to be conscious of the associations between tourists and locals, as well as the relationship between cameras and performances."

-Soham Gadre, SCREENSLATE

“Takesue’s filmography is preoccupied with perception: of people, places, generations, and cultures. Her films argue that our ability to patiently observe is often all that stands in the way of personal enlightenment and cross-cultural connection...Onlookers, Takesue’s third feature, offers moments of spontaneous beauty, humor, and cheeky interaction with Takesue’s camera, showcasing the power of diverse human behavior, no matter how small the scope might seem."

-Natalia Keogan, REVERSE SHOT

"The scenes appear as motion postcards sedately unspooling life's minutiae...“Onlookers” peels back the layers of commodified culture to reveal the deep and enduring pleasures of travel."

-Edward Frumkin, TRUTH DIG

"Exquisite care to the picture and sound....Nearly all the roles associated with the making of the film are occupied by the filmmaker (who, by this point, has similarly established an immediate expectation of worthiness with anything to which her name is attached).”

                 -Jonathan Marlowe, HAMMER TO NAIL

“Enchanting...Takesue captures the beauty of the Southeast Asian country that has drawn so many visitors like herself from around the world…allowing for one to judge for themselves what they are seeing while gently injecting her own sense of discovery and good humor in curating the experience.”

-Stephen Saito, THE MOVEABLE FEST

"Entrancingly framed...Takesue revels in the complications of human—specifically tourist—interactions with Laos and its people and the complex, nuanced implications of the voyeur.

-Jeffery Berg, FILM FORWARD

“Kimi Takesue...gives birth to a non-narrative work, whose efficiency, sincerity and even the plastic beauty that remains, give its own spectators something to nourish a calm reflection. The intellectual scope of Onlookers is certain, and without forgetting the sensations that cinematographic art can provide (through images and sounds), the film proves to be quite relevant. The form and the content marry the intention of the filmmaker in a pure and perfect way.”

-Maxime Bauer, EAST ASIA

“Stunning visuals exploring what we see and what we know, what we are present for and what we are absent for.”

-Mark Rifkin, THIS WEEK IN NEW YORK

“A human mass, they (the tourists) constitute a phenomenon in the natural sense, and their arrival is a migration, a godsend for the locals as much as a calamity. But the film, like the Laotians themselves who are so stoic and so good-natured, ultimately takes a very tender look at these tourists...You can easily recognize yourself in the great weariness of these travelers.”

-Tristan Tailhades, ZONE CRITIQUE

“Both for its strong connection between the visuals and the sound, and the non-judgmental observation of mass tourism, Takesue’s documentary approach is comparable to Sergei Loznitsa’s “Austerlitz” (2016) shot in the concentration camps at Dachau and Sachsenhausen. “Onlookers” comes up to its name in the appropriate empirical meaning: it is not interventional, not pro- or against what is going on in front of the lens. Visually strong, with the narrative completely built on moving images, and without as much as one single spoken or written comment, “Onlookers” motivates the viewers to ask themselves a question: why do we travel the way we do, with eyes wide shut?”

-Marina Richter, ASIAN MOVIE PULSE

“A gentle meditation on the nature of “travel” and the disruptive qualities of “tourism”, Takesue’s elegantly lensed images seem to argue for a more active reflection on the world and our place within it rather than remaining a perpetual onlooker observing without thought or feeling.”

-Hayley Scanlon, WINDOWS ON WORLDS

 ADDITIONAL REVIEWS & PRESS

-FILMMAKER MAGAZINE, Natalia Keogan

-THE CRITERION COLLECTION, David Hudson

-CINIFIED, Joe Kucharski

-CRITICUM, Ferran Calven - Spain

-RUTGERS NEWARK NEWSLETTER, Lawrence Lerner

INTERVIEWS / PERSONAL ESSAYS

-TALKHOUSE: Personal Essay by Kimi Takesue: “Seeing and Seeking”

-FILMMAKER MAGAZINE: Interview with Kimi Takesue by A.E Hunt: “We Need Work That is Impossible to Describe”

-METROGRAPH: Video Interview with Kimi Takesue on “ONLOOKERS”

-CINEMA DU REEL: Interview with Kimi Takesue and Gaspard Bonaldi about Onlookers (2023) 

-THE MOVEABLE FEST: Interview with Kimi Takesue by Stephen Saito: “Kimi Takesue on the Wandering Eye”

- ASIAN MOVIE PULSE: Interview with Kimi Takesue by Marina D Richter: “I Often Return to the Basic Theme of Cross-cultural Encounter”

- HAMMER TO NAIL: Interview with Kimi Takesue by Jonathan Marlow: “A Conversation with Kimi Takesue”

-REVERSE SHOT: Interview with Kimi Takesue by Natalia Keogan

- ABOVE THE LINE: Interview with Kimi Takesue by Edward Douglas: “Filmmaker Kimi Takesue on Travel, Capturing Laos For Her DIY Doc Onlookers”

-THE PARK RECORD: Interview with Kimi Takesue by Scott Iwasaki: “Onlookers documentary finds home and Audience at Slamdance”

- RUTGERS NEWARK NEWSLETTER: Professor Kimi Takesue Premieres Her Latest Feature Documentary Film at Slamdance

-MEDIAPART: Interview with Kimi Takesue by Gaspard Bonaldi (in French)

-CINEMA DAILY: Interview with Kimi Takesue and Nobuhiro Hosoki: “Exclusive Interview with Director Kimi Takesue”

-CINEMATOGRAFICAMENTE FALANDO: Interview with Kimi Takesue and Hugo Gomes (in Portugese)

-THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Interview with Kimi Takesue by Nir Regev: “Onlookers film @ Cinéma du Réel”

PODCASTS/RADIO INTERVIEWS 

- WBAI Radio NYC: Cat Radio Cafe: Interview with Kimi Takesue & Janet Coleman 

-RIDE THE OMNIBUS: Podcast with Kimi Takesue and Ariel Baska