Career:
– Worked as a television director for NHK from 1997 to 2005
– Directed “Campaign (Senkyo)” in 2005, invited to Berlin International Film Festival
– PBS broadcast a 52-minute version, winning the Peabody Award in 2008
– Shot “Mental (Seishin)” from 2005 to 2007, premiered at Pusan International Film Festival in 2008
– Premiered “Peace” in 2010, depicting the lives of people with disabilities and cats, winning several awards
Awards:
– “Campaign (Senkyo)” won Best Documentary Award at Belgrade International Documentary Film Festival in 2008
– “Mental (Seishin)” won Best Documentary Award at Dubai International Film Festival in 2008
– “Peace” won Audience Award at Tokyo Filmex and Best Documentary Award at Hong Kong International Film Festival
– Documentary series “Theater 1” and “Theatre 2” won Young Jurys Prize at Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes, France in 2012
– Published “Theatre vs. Film – Can a Documentary Capture Fiction?” in 2012
References:
– Owen Armstrong’s observations on J-Democracy in Vertigo Magazine
– Director biography on Whydemocracy.net
– Kazuhiro Soda featured at MoMA Documentary Fortnight
– Filmography details on Kazuhiro Soda’s official website
– Derek Elley’s review of “Campaign” in Variety @ Berlin
Achievements:
– “Campaign” was part of the global media event “Why Democracy?” co-produced by 33 broadcasters
– “Mental (Seishin)” won the PIFF Mecenat Award at Pusan International Film Festival in 2008
– “Peace” was commissioned as a short documentary by DMZ Docs and later won the Buyens-Chagoll Award at Visions du Reel
– “Theater 1” and “Theatre 2” were world-premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in 2012
– “Campaign” won the Inter-religious Jury Prize at Visions du Reel in 2009
Media Coverage:
– Coverage of “Campaign” in Variety @ Berlin
– “Campaign” winning a Peabody Award discussed on POV – Blog
– IMDb references for Pusan International Film Festival (2008) and Dubai International Film Festival (2008)
– Korea Times article on Kazuhiro Soda
– Ed Meza’s article on Kazuhiro Soda’s biopic in Variety.
Kazuhiro Soda (想田 和弘, Sōda Kazuhiro, born 1970 in Tochigi Prefecture) is a Japanese documentary filmmaker and author based in New York City. He is known for his observational method of documentary filmmaking.
Kazuhiro Soda | |
|---|---|
想田 和弘 | |
.jpg) Soda at the 68th Annual Peabody Awards | |
| Born | 1970 (age 53–54) Tochigi Prefecture, Japan |
| Alma mater | University of Tokyo (BA) School of Visual Arts (BFA) |
| Occupation | Documentary filmmaker |
Soda obtained a degree in religious studies from the University of Tokyo in 1993 and a BFA in filmmaking from the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he has remained since, in 1997.