Toward a Common Tenderness

This is personal - autobiographical themes appear in all conversations with Kaori Oda about this film. If I hadn't become a filmmaker, says the director, I would probably have taken up anthropology, because I'm interested in people. And even though my films explore space and focus on the environment, at the center of the story is always what makes them interesting, the atmosphere that humans introduce into them. In her video diary, Kaori Oda looks at herself holding the camera, and in her thoughts and images she returns to the conflict with her mother, who has not come to terms with her sexual orientation. She is also trying to create a new relationship with a foreign reality in Eastern Europe; the camera allows her to overcome the language barrier and start a conversation with local miners, the Roma she meets on the way, and with residents of remote villages. A camera has violence inherent in its nature, it enters intimate human worlds with an alien gaze, disturbs the silence. Can it be applied with sensitivity? I feel it's possible sometimes, she says, but every moment I record is a challenge for me.