Special Report: Kimi Takesue: Crossings and Encounters

The Projection Booth

Tv & Film, Film Interviews, Film Reviews, Film History

4.6 • 709 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mike talks with filmmaker Kimi Takesue, whose work — spanning documentary, fiction, and experimental forms — is now collected on the Criterion Channel. Takesue grew up shuttling between Honolulu and Massachusetts, and that cross-cultural, biracial upbringing informs every frame she has made, from early shorts rooted in identity politics to acclaimed features documenting cross-cultural encounters in Uganda, Laos, and Hawaiʻi.

Her films, including Where Are You Taking Me?, 95 and 6 to Go, and Onlookers, examine those encounters through an observational lens, tracing the power dynamics and unspoken tensions that emerge when tourists and locals share the same unequal terrain. Takesue discusses her practice of traveling without research or agenda, letting one thing unfold into the next, and how a devastating failed fiction project directly led to the making of Where Are You Taking Me? She also talks about the rhythm and formalism of Onlookers, the tension between aestheticizing beauty and critiquing the tourist gaze, the influences she only fully embraced later in her career, and her current work-in-progress following tour guides at Cambodian atrocity sites.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.

Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	If you're looking for more horror outside of the mainstream, look no further than unsung horrors,
0:05.7	a podcast about underseen horror movies. I'm Lance. And I'm Erica. Every other week, we'll cover a
0:12.8	horror movie with fewer than 1,000 views on Letterboxed. We'll even give you double feature
0:17.5	recommendations to pair with the movies we discuss. From Gothic to shot on video, from slashers to comedies, from Gialo to J-Horror.
0:26.1	We'll cover all the subgenres.
0:28.1	So join us as we unearth these hidden gyms of horror.
0:31.3	Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, all at Unsung Horrors, available wherever you listen to podcasts, and part of the
0:39.2	Someone's Favorite Productions Podcast Network.
0:46.0	The audio commentary.
0:48.8	It's a dying art form, but here at One Track Mind, I, your wonky yet affable host, Ryan Luis Rodriguez,
0:56.0	analyze film through the prism of these embryonic forms of podcasting,
1:00.5	one audio commentary at a time.
1:03.8	Masterpieces, crapsterpieces, live action, animation, cult classics,
1:09.3	films literally no one has ever heard of. No track is too small
1:13.7	and no track is too big. Join me and my guests from the entertainment world as we keep these
1:19.8	features alive every other Tuesday. Hey, who else is going to discuss Bill and Ted's bogus journey one
1:26.5	week and Citizen Kane the next?
1:29.0	Us, that's who.
1:30.9	Sure, you have to put up with my voice, but there's a certain give and take in this industry.
1:35.8	That's one track mine, part of the someone's favorite productions family, and available wherever you get your podcasts.
1:48.0	Okay. and available wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever wanted to dive deeper into the horror movies you love?
1:52.1	Beyond the Blood is a horror podcast for fans who want more than just surface level screams.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 10 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Projection Booth, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Projection Booth and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.