
Directing
Kaori Oda
Place of birth
Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Known for
Directing
Credits
37 titles
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
NRA storyteller of peace serves as a guide in the “Gama”—natural caves where many local people lost their lives during the Battle of Okinawa. The woman in blue standing by his side represents the intersection of the present and the past.
GAMA
2025
5.0Cenotes—sources of water that in ancient Mayan civilization were said to connect the real world and the afterlife. The past and present of the people living in and around them intersect, and distant memories echo throughout immersive scenes of light and darkness.
Cenote
2020
NR"My goal is not education, but liberation." In February 2024, a filmmaking workshop takes place in Fukushima under the guidance of the Hungarian master, Béla Tarr. Observing him mentor the students offers a glimpse into his unique perspective on cinema and his profound approach to the art of film.
FUKUSHIMA with BÉLA TARR
2025
5.5A shadow reveals its form from the darkness underground. It communicates with a woman's consciousness, and she begins to see fragmentary memories that transcend time and place, as if daydreaming. The shadow takes on the woman's form and travels. Situating itself in places invisible from above ground, it traces what once happened there, listening to the human memories buried in the flow of time.
Underground
2025
6.0Miners in a Bosnian coal mine. The camera silently watches over the miners working tirelessly amidst endless noise and the flickering light of lanterns.
Aragane
2017
NR8mm short shot at night from the Osaka bay where the river flows into the sea
Lighthouse
2024
Film credits
2010s · 2 titles
6.0Moments in the life of a young Japanese filmmaker in Bosnia, charged with acoustic and visual poetry. Buoyant and essayistic entries in a process of self- and world-reassurance.
Toward a Common Tenderness
2017
3.5When Kacchi came back home for summer break from abroad, she came out to her family as a homosexual. Her mother and father couldn't take it and answered in negative. Though Kacchi had a depression for their reactions, she decided to face her family again throughout a filmmaking about the 'coming-out'.
Thus a Noise Speaks
2012
Behind the camera
NRA storyteller of peace serves as a guide in the “Gama”—natural caves where many local people lost their lives during the Battle of Okinawa. The woman in blue standing by his side represents the intersection of the present and the past.
GAMA
2025
5.0Cenotes—sources of water that in ancient Mayan civilization were said to connect the real world and the afterlife. The past and present of the people living in and around them intersect, and distant memories echo throughout immersive scenes of light and darkness.
Cenote
2020
5.0Cenotes—sources of water that in ancient Mayan civilization were said to connect the real world and the afterlife. The past and present of the people living in and around them intersect, and distant memories echo throughout immersive scenes of light and darkness.
Cenote
2020
5.0Cenotes—sources of water that in ancient Mayan civilization were said to connect the real world and the afterlife. The past and present of the people living in and around them intersect, and distant memories echo throughout immersive scenes of light and darkness.
Cenote
2020
NR"My goal is not education, but liberation." In February 2024, a filmmaking workshop takes place in Fukushima under the guidance of the Hungarian master, Béla Tarr. Observing him mentor the students offers a glimpse into his unique perspective on cinema and his profound approach to the art of film.
FUKUSHIMA with BÉLA TARR
2025
5.5A shadow reveals its form from the darkness underground. It communicates with a woman's consciousness, and she begins to see fragmentary memories that transcend time and place, as if daydreaming. The shadow takes on the woman's form and travels. Situating itself in places invisible from above ground, it traces what once happened there, listening to the human memories buried in the flow of time.
Underground
2025
5.5A shadow reveals its form from the darkness underground. It communicates with a woman's consciousness, and she begins to see fragmentary memories that transcend time and place, as if daydreaming. The shadow takes on the woman's form and travels. Situating itself in places invisible from above ground, it traces what once happened there, listening to the human memories buried in the flow of time.
Underground
2025
6.0Miners in a Bosnian coal mine. The camera silently watches over the miners working tirelessly amidst endless noise and the flickering light of lanterns.
Aragane
2017
NR8mm short shot at night from the Osaka bay where the river flows into the sea
Lighthouse
2024
NRA moving image work from director Kaori Oda.
Night Cruise
2019
6.0Moments in the life of a young Japanese filmmaker in Bosnia, charged with acoustic and visual poetry. Buoyant and essayistic entries in a process of self- and world-reassurance.
Toward a Common Tenderness
2017
6.0Moments in the life of a young Japanese filmmaker in Bosnia, charged with acoustic and visual poetry. Buoyant and essayistic entries in a process of self- and world-reassurance.
Toward a Common Tenderness
2017
8.0In a train from Sarajevo to Zagreb, looking at the landscape of the foreign country from a window, I somehow felt nostalgic and a question crossed my mind. “What is my first memory?” Could primitive memories be found and shared in human beings? If collective memories exist in us as what is inherited, I would like to know what it is like and to capture them by camera and sound recorder.
FLASH
2015
NRAn omnibus movie produced to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Motomachi Eigakan.
Would You Like to Go to the Cinema Today?
2022
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Black Red Ultramarine White Lemon
2024
NRThe experiment presents a cinematic poem to filmmaking and film itself. Directed by eleven filmmakers, all under the vision of Bela Tarr's 'film.factory', delving into what keeps us making films.
Lost in Bosnia
2014
NRThe experiment presents a cinematic poem to filmmaking and film itself. Directed by eleven filmmakers, all under the vision of Bela Tarr's 'film.factory', delving into what keeps us making films.
Lost in Bosnia
2014
NRA moving image work from Kaori Oda, inspired by the film "Desperate Man Blues".
TUNE
2018
NRA train runs at night. Goldfish float in passenger’s dreams.
Night Train
2021
NRA cowherd, sheep, and the wind, all have an equal presence in the village. Death and life are one and indivisible.
Conniving
2014
NRA cowherd, sheep, and the wind, all have an equal presence in the village. Death and life are one and indivisible.
Conniving
2014
3.5When Kacchi came back home for summer break from abroad, she came out to her family as a homosexual. Her mother and father couldn't take it and answered in negative. Though Kacchi had a depression for their reactions, she decided to face her family again throughout a filmmaking about the 'coming-out'.
Thus a Noise Speaks
2012
3.5When Kacchi came back home for summer break from abroad, she came out to her family as a homosexual. Her mother and father couldn't take it and answered in negative. Though Kacchi had a depression for their reactions, she decided to face her family again throughout a filmmaking about the 'coming-out'.
Thus a Noise Speaks
2012
No synopsis available yet.
Kandachime
2024
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Homo Mobilitas
2022
7.0Karaoke Cafe BOSA is located in the suburbs of Osaka. It’s a place where elderly neighbors gather to chat and sing. The film captures BOSA in these days of unrest as a time capsule of the Anthropocene.
Karaoke Cafe BOSA
2022
7.0Old 8mm family film and images of fireworks combined together.
TEN
2017
NR“Light and darkness, brightness and obscurity, or if a more general expression is preferred, light and its absence, are necessary to the production of color… Color itself is a degree of darkness.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Theory of Colours: prologue
2017
6.0Recorded the restoration work done for the reopening of Tadao Ando's "Chapel of the Wind" in Rokko, Kobe. It tells the length of time by showing the mold and moss that eroded the concrete. When the closed door is opened, the stopped time starts flowing again.
Church of the Wind
2018
6.0No synopsis available yet.
Recording with Mother "Working Hands"
2025
NRNo synopsis available yet.
colere-ON: Sep 27 - Oct 5
2021
NRA short film about the "hand" that connect our world and the other side, under the background of "Matsuage" in Kyoto.
The Thread of Red Cocoons
2012
NRA short film about the "hand" that connect our world and the other side, under the background of "Matsuage" in Kyoto.
The Thread of Red Cocoons
2012
No synopsis available yet.
By the Sea
2024
