PRESS
PRESS
“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
“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
“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
“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
“If you’re looking for a new kind of travel film, this is for you.”
-Benjamin Franz, FILM THREAT
“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
“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
“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
“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