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Rika Ohara: Bio- and Filmography
As a teen, Rika Ohara aspired to be a manga artist. But when a magazine editor, sent by the great
Osamu Tezuka himself, pronounced her work "too artsy," she decided to study fine art instead. She trained in painting,
photography and dance; her MFA thesis project at California Institute of the Arts was a dance-theatre adaptation of Oscar Wilde's Salomé.
After touring Germany and Holland with solo performance piece Neither Garlic nor Beans (1984/88),
Ohara began developing an analogue system to synchronise music, video and slide projections for her live artworks. In 1990, she formed
the interdisciplinary theatre group Nuclear Family to create Shelter, a series of dance-theatre
performances in video installations.
This was followed by Tokyo Rose (1991-5), an extensive multimedia, dance and theatre piece.
Ohara then put the performance
elements of Shelter on video, exhibiting the resulting videodance installation at Monaco Dance Forum, Rencontres Internationales
Paris-Berlin and NewMoves Festival, Glasgow (2000-2). During this time, she also began exhibiting media works at film festivals:
1,332 Feet Below the Sea (2001), an 18-minute science fiction animation, and live action shorts Three Dance Pieces (2006)
and Breakfast in Bed With John (2007), as well as The Potato Woman (2003-7),
combining animation and live action.
Narrative feature The Heart of No Place inspired by the life and work of Yoko Ono was shot entirely on Digital 8. It premiered
at Festival International Films de Femmes de Crteil in 2009, and won the Best International Feature award at London Independent Film
Festival (2010). From exhaustive research for another narrative feature project Carmilla, Ohara developed The Giaour initially
presenting the story as an opera, staging two excerpts in Los Angeles in 2015 before it was nominated for the Best Feature Screenplay
at CU European Independent Film Festival, Paris, in 2016.
Ohara is a recipient of California Community Foundation (2001), California Arts Council (2004) and C.O.L.A. (City of Los Angeles)
fellowships (2012). The Giaour is her seventh feature-length narrative.
The Giaour
Filming in Greece, Spring 2025
CU - European Independent Film Festival "Not Just a Screenplay" Competition, 2016
The Heart of No Place
Winner: Best International Feature, London Independent Film Festival, 2010
Gteborg International Film Festival 2010
Romania International Film Festival, Bucharest
Festival Internazionale Un Film per la Pace, Medea (Gorizia - Italy)
Szolnok International Film Festival of Fine Arts (Hungary)
Polar Film Festival, Turku (Finland)
The World Film Festival of Bangkok
Festival Temps dImages Film Award for Films on Art, Lisbon, 2009
Festival International de Films de Femmes de Crteil (world premiere)
The Potato Woman (short)
NewMedia Fest, Kln 2010
Mostra Internacional de Vdeodana, SESC Centro, Rio de Janeiro, 2009
Mostra Internacional de Vdeodana: Projecto Paradas em Movimento no Ccsp, So Paulo, 2008
Dana em Foco Videodance Festival at Centro Cultural Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro
Ankara International Film Festival NewMediaFest, Kln, 2007
Los Angeles Short Film Festival
Filmlichter 06 Detmold International Short Film Festival, Germany, 2006
Fullerton Film Festival
L.A. Freewaves Festival
24 Hours of Nuremberg
Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica
Santa Monica Museum of Art
Festival de Cine Internacional de Barcelona, 2004
International Film Festival of Fine Arts, Szolnok, Hungary 2003
Three Dance Pieces (short)
Mostra Internacional de Vdeodana, SESC Centro, Rio de Janeiro, 2009
Mostra Internacional de Vdeodana: Projecto Paradas em Movimento no Ccsp, So Paulo, 2008
Dana em Foco Festival Internacional de Vdeo & Dana, Rio de Janeiro, 2007
Breakfast in Bed with John (short)
Where Is the Love? International Short Film Festival, Bucharest, 2006
1,332 Feet Below the Sea (short)
Animation World Network
Rencontres Internationales Paris-Berlin, 2003
The Millennium Scientific Film Festival, Szolnok, 2001
Shelter
New Territories Festival, Glasgow, 2002
Battery Park Electronic Music Festival, Kln
Rencontres Internationales Paris-Berlin, 2001
Videoforms Festival, Clermont-Ferrand
Monaco Dance Forum: Dance and Technology Program, 2000
The Plaza Gallery, Tokyo, 1999
The Lab, San Francisco
One Colorado, Pasadena, 1998
Japan America Plaza, Los Angeles, 1993
Tokyo Rose
The Stage, San Jose, 1996
The Lab, San Francisco, 1995
University of Hawaii
Japanese American Cultural Community Center, Los Angeles, 1994
Galerie E43 IM Treppenhaus, Berlin
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 1993
Lectures and Conference Presentation
University of Southern California, 2014; 2016
Somatics and Technology Conference, University of Chichester, 2010
University of Kentucky, 1995
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