Kyoka Tsukamoto

Place of birth:

Tokyo, Japan:

Biography:

Montréal based filmmaker Kyoka Tsukamoto has been working on some experimental films and essay works to establish her creative signature; the specificity of the film medium as the complexity of a mind - it is a sculpture of time and space, as it connects pieces of perceived reality, memories and dreams. Experimentations of cinematic language and explorations in artistic storytelling methods have always been her great interests. The stories that she tells carry several layers of psychological, geographical, social, cultural and spiritual content that are organically entangled, to mirror human nature which is never simple. Kyoka Tsukamoto produced/directed her first feature-length hybrid documentary “My Dearest Sister” which won the cinematography award from the Reelworld Film Festival, and earned the best female filmmaker award, “Die Tilda” nomination at the Braunschweig International Film Festival. The film was also an official selection at the Raindance Film Festival, the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM), and the Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma. After graduating from the School of Fine Arts with a degree in Metal Craft (Toyama University), Tsukamoto, originally from Tokyo, moved to Canada to study film at Toronto Metropolitan University (Ryerson University). She then emigrated to Canada in 1998 and settled in Montreal, where she worked as an editor and a director. Since 2002, she has received several grants from arts councils, and produced and directed some artistic films, including her first feature-length essay which won Canada Council’s New Chapter grant and the support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and la Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC). Tsukamoto also composes music for films and plays the piano. Since she started composing in 2014, the creation of music has become the vital force of the process of making films. Soundtrack is more than background sound that accompanies the moving image; it is like the soul of the body; something that is invisible, yet an essential spirit of a film that we watch.