Background
Tomonari Nishikawa explores the idea of documenting situations/phenomena through a chosen medium and technique, often focusing on the process itself. His films have been screened at numerous film festivals, such as Berlinale, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Filmadrid, FRONTEIRA, Hong Kong International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, London Film Festival, Media City Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and Singapore International Film Festival. His most recent film, Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke, has premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and received the Best Experimental Short Film Award at the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival. He presented a series of 8mm and 16mm films at MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, and his film installation, Building 945, received the Grant Award from the Museum of Contemporary Cinema in Spain.
Nishikawa also produces audio and visual performances. His ongoing 16mm film projection performance piece, Six Seventy-Two Variations, has been performed at Block Museum in Evanston, Centro de Cultura Digital in Mexico City, Exploratorium in San Francisco, FRACTO in Berlin, Microlights Cinema in Milwaukee, Prismatic Ground in New York, Shapeshifters Cinema in Oakland, among others. He uses slide projectors for his other performances or collaborative work with sound artists, and such projects have been presented at AgX Boston Film Collective, Microscope Gallery in New York, Mono No Aware Festival of Cinema Arts in Brooklyn, and Spool Contemporary Art Space in Johnson City.
Nishikawa also works as a film curator. He has curated dozens of screening programs and introduced more than 500 films at various venues. He served as a juror for film festivals, including the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Bangkok International Documentary Awards and Film Festival, Dresdner Schmalfilmtage, Hong Kong International Film Festival, and Milwaukee Underground Film Festival. He is one of the co-founders of KLEX: Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video and Music Festival and Transient Visions: Festival of the Moving Image.
Education
- MFA, San Francisco Art Institute
Research Interests
- Film and video art
- Film projection performance
- Film curation
- Structural film
- Minimalism in arts and music
Teaching Interests
- 16mm filmmaking
- Avant-garde and experimental film
- Expanded cinema
- Digital videomaking
Awards
Provost's Award for Excellence in Community-Engaged Scholarship
More Info
tomonarinishikawa.com
vimeo.com/tomonarinishikawa
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