Kimie Minobe
Kimie Minobe specialises in films that engage the audience through confession, and candid displays of vulnerability that incite humour and empathy. Growing up in a cross-cultural household and experiencing a multi-cultural upbringing, Minobe is fascinated in the cultural variations of the family unit, and in particular the relationship between family expectations and individual identity. Her recent explorations involve examining cultural expectations within her Japanese heritage with regards to expressions of love, discipline, and gender roles within the family unit.
She investigates these themes by placing her own family relationships under the microscope, utilising clandestine footage, auto-biographical materials and moments of confession. Her works, pieced together in the format of a visual diary, aim to create a moment of connection with the viewer through a shared experience, with scenes of protest, heartbreak, hypocrisy and humour bared with little inhibition. Her latest piece, a 15 min moving image work “The Sweet-potato Paradox”, examines the expectations of filial piety in Japanese families, through the frame of Minobe’s relationship with her father, who lives a reclusive life in Japanese suburbia.
For Minobe, the medium of moving-image has become a reflective space, that allows a form of healing through the act of archiving, transforming and disrupting cultural expectations. Her intention is to inspire moments of healing and empowerment with the audience through the screen.