観 KAN

Synopsis

観 – KAN is a documentary short film that explores the relationship between the camera and human presence through the figure of Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase. The work is built from footage shot in 2024 during the production of Emergency Exit, directed by Lluís Miñarro, in locations including the film set and the Filmoteca de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Director’s Statement

The film develops a poetic reflection on the gaze: how Naomi Kawase, a filmmaker who “knows” the camera, transforms representation simply through her awareness of being observed. A voice-over, constructed in dialogue with the visual material, searches for meaning in images that oscillate between performance and life, presence and absence, the visible and that which the camera can never fully capture.

Through a contemplative and fragmented structure, KAN offers an intimate portrait of time, the act of filmmaking, and the act of looking. Rather than narrating events, the film evokes states of being: wakefulness and dreaming, silence and speech, the body in performance and the body at rest. In this sense, it is also a reflection on death and memory, on how the image preserves what inevitably passes away.

観 means “to look attentively.” Naomi Kawase herself hand-calligraphed the kanji for the film’s poster.

This film was made possible thanks to the generosity of Lluís Miñarro, who allowed these images to be filmed during the production of his feature film. Thanks also to Yonay Boix and to everyone who made this project possible.